Blue Dart Express reports over 48.4% decline in Q1 profit to Rs 62.81 cr

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian logistics services provider Blue Dart Express on Thursday reported a drop in profit for the third quarter in a row, as reduced fuel costs were yet to show an impact, and demand was soft.

The Deutsche Post-controlled company posted a consolidated net profit of 621.8 million rupees ($7.6 million) in the quarter ended June 30, down 48.4% from a year ago.

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KEY CONTEXT

Aviation turbine fuel, which accounts for about 40% of operating costs for express logistics companies, corrected sequentially during the June-quarter.

The high prices had led to drops in profit for Blue Dart, which had about a 60% market share in the organised air express segment at the end of the last fiscal year, in the earlier two quarters.

Slowed demand within e-commerce segments have impacted logistics companies as well, with Blue Dart's peer, Mahindra Logistics, posting a loss in the April-June quarter earlier this week.

Blue Dart added two Boeing 737 aircraft in fiscal 2023 to cater to tier-II and tier-III cities, which analysts believe helps boost its volumes.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next Estimates (next 12 Analysts' sentiment

12 months) months)

RIC PE EV/EBIT Revenue profit Mean # of Stock to Div

DA growth growth rating* analysts price yield

target** (%)

Blue Dart Express BLDT.NS 35.59 16.61 11.60 20.68 Buy 5 0.98 0.41

Ltd

Mahindra Logistics MALO.NS 44.42 9.64 14.61 94.76 Hold 11 0.87 0.66

Ltd

VRL Logistics Ltd VRLL.NS 27.92 13.10 18.05 -18.11 Strong 8 0.91 0.67

Buy

Container CCRI.NS 29.08 17.25 13.19 18.16 Buy 15 0.95 1.66

Corporation of India

Ltd

* The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

APRIL-JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from Refinitiv

-- $1 = 81.9425 Indian rupees

 

(Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)