BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian logistics firm Delhivery Ltd on Friday reported a 9.1% drop in its fourth quarter total income, hurt by subdued demand and elevated fuel costs.
The company’s consolidated total income fell to 19.34 billion rupees ($236.5 million) for the quarter ended March 31, from 21.27 billion rupees a year ago.
The delivery firm has seen growth slow from highs recorded during the first few quarters of the pandemic, when people shopped for everything from home goods to apparel online. It is also reeling under the pressure of high fuel costs.
Its cross-border services business saw a decline in revenue, despite healthy volumes, hurt by falling global yields in both air and ocean freight and volume impact of the Chinese New Year holidays, the company said in a statement.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) margin contracted to 0.3% in the quarter, compared to 3.9% a year earlier. However, it turned positive sequentially after reporting a negative margin of 3.7% in the previous quarter.
Consolidated net loss widened to 1.59 billion rupees from 1.20 billion rupees a year ago, according to an exchange filing, continuing its streak of consecutive losses since its initial public offering in May 2022.
“Delhivery has aggressive infrastructure and capability expansion plans in place and is confident of the strong start in April and first half of May, continuing through the year,” Managing Director & CEO Sahil Barua said.
Peer Blue Dart Express Ltd earlier this month saw a near 50% drop in fourth-quarter profit, hurt by higher expenses.
Shares of Delhivery closed 1.16% lower ahead of the results. The stock rose 0.1% in the March-quarter.
($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Priya Sagar in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)