Egytrans, a leading provider of logistics and transportation solutions in Egypt, announced Wednesday its consolidated results for the first quarter of 2017. The group's revenues were maintained y-o-y in 1Q17 despite the challenging operating environment and, thanks to strong revenue growth across most of Egytrans business lines, Egytrans performance has continued on its high curve from last year's annual results. The first quarter saw Egytrans' consolidated revenues grow 282.4 percent Y-o-Y to 110.5 million Egyptian pounds driven by the continued work in mega projects which extended to 1Q17 as well as the improved performance of ETAL and outstanding growth in regular business. With this gain, Egytrans has solidified its position as the leading Transportation and Logistics Company in Egypt. Meanwhile, growth in revenues was coupled with a considerable improvement on Cost/Revenues ratio by 1,226 bps to record 55.8 percent in 1Q17 vis-à-vis 68.0 percent in 1Q16, leading to a higher EBITDA margin of 37.5 percent vs. 11.4 percent for both quarters respectively. Net Profits after Taxes for 1Q17 came in at 20.3 million pounds (3.3x higher than 1Q16 of 6.1 million pounds) with a margin of 18.3 percent compared to a higher margin of 21.0 percent in 1Q16 mainly due to higher taxes during this quarter vis-a-vis the same quarter a year ago. "The rate of change in our financial metrics has been significant over the last twelve months," stated Abir Leheta, Chairman of Egytrans. "We continued to focus our portfolio around high-margin, high rate-of-return business, implement meaningful cost reductions across our business, and strengthen our financial position, while seeing structural improvements. Our first quarter results demonstrate this step change in the cash flow generating capability and financial sustainability of our business." Egytrans' separate revenues reached 90.2 million pounds (248.3 percent growth Y-o-Y), while costs increased 197.7 percent to 57.7 million pounds. In the meantime, SG&A increased by 21.8 percent to 6.3 million pounds. Accordingly, EBITDA margin has strongly improved to 26.2 million pounds from 1.4 million pounds for 1Q17 vs. 1Q16, respectively. Net Profits after Taxes added 572 percent to reach 24.1 million pounds in 1Q17 vis-à-vis 3.6 million pounds in the year-ago period. Egyptian Transport & Logistics (ETAL), a fully owned subsidiary of Egytrans, executed specialised transport of cargos with exceptional weight and dimensions for the aforementioned mega projects, in addition to other operations. As a result, the company achieved net profits after taxes of 8.7 million pounds in 1Q17 compared to 1.2 million pounds in 1Q16, with an almost 6-fold Y-o-Y increase. Egytrans Depot Solutions (EDS), a fully owned subsidiary of Egytrans, specializing in storing, cleaning and repairing liquid bulk cargo containers (ISO Tanks), achieved net profits after taxes of $0.12 million in 1Q17 versus $0.15 million in 1Q16, with a Y-o-Y decline of 19.7 percent mainly due to higher taxes during the period. In the current transportation and logistics context, which is still affected by depressed trade volumes, Egytrans has continued its positive trend begun end 2016, with further improvement in operating margins and net income. "Our strong performance, which once again distinguishes the Group, is due to the confidence our clients continue to show in us as a reliable and dependable business partner, as well as to the rigorous operational management of our activities. Although the industry still faces strong headwinds, we are confident our strategy should allow us to improve operational results over the next quarter, leveraging current and future projects and maintaining our focus in operational efficiency and innovation to the benefit of our customers. We continue to reinforce our position as a leading player in our industry" explains Leheta. Mega Power projects, most significantly the Beni Suef and the New Administrative Capital Gas Turbine Power stations established by Siemens and the South Helwan Power Station established by Mitsubishi-Hitachi, continued to be the main driver and the major contributor to Egytrans' strong revenues for 1Q17 that have positively affected different lines of business such as land transport, storage and other handling services. More recently Egytrans signed a new contract during 1Q17 for the transport of production lines and equipment for new fertilisers plant NCIC. This project is expected to extend until 3Q17.
