Egytrans, a leading provider of logistics and transportation solutions in Egypt, announced today its consolidated results for the third quarter of 2017. It continues reporting strong performance with revenues up by 106 percent to reach 292 million Egyptian Pounds and net profits after taxes of 82 million Pounds up 277% Y-o-Y. Group revenues continued strong performance exhibited over the year with a slight slowdown in revenue stream from the projects business partially offset by increasing growth in other business lines. Growth in revenues was coupled with a considerable improvement on Cost/Revenues ratio by 1,065 bps to record 56.0% in 9M17 vis-à-vis 66.6% in 9M16, leading to a higher EBITDA margin of 36.2% vs. 16.1% for both respective periods. Net Profits after Taxes have shown a 3.5 fold increase over the same period last year reaching 81.7 pounds million up from 21.6 million pounds with a margin of 28.0% vis-a-vis a margin of 15.3% in 9M16 despite the higher taxes during the period coupled with nil investment income versus 0.7 pounds million in the comparable period. "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 third quarter results demonstrate this step change in the cash flow generating capability and financial sustainability of our business." Egytrans' separate revenues witnessed a 109.5% growth Y-o-Y reaching EGP 240.3 million, while Costs increased 78.2% to 153.5 million pounds . In the meantime, SG&A declined by 11.4% to 18.4 million pounds . Accordingly, EBITDA margin has strongly improved almost eight fold to 68.4 million pounds from 7.7 million pounds for 9M17 vs. 9M16, respectively. Net Profits after Taxes surged 247.9% to reach 70.8 million in 9M17 vis-à-vis 20.3 million pounds in the year-ago period. Egyptian Transport & Logistics (ETAL), a fully owned subsidiary of Egytrans, specialized in the execution of transport and installation of cargos with exceptional weight and dimensions. As a result of the completion of a number of mega projects growth for ETAL has witnessed a slowdown over the previous months. Nevertheless the company continues its high performance recording 83.4% increase in revenues to reach 38.2 million pounds, leading to a 152.8% hike in Net Profits after Taxes to EGP 20.0 million in 9M17 compared to 8.6 million pounds in 9M16. Egytrans Depot Solutions (EDS), a fully owned subsidiary of Egytrans, specializing in storing, cleaning and repairing liquid bulk cargo containers (ISO Tanks). As a result of the implementation of taxes for the first year coupled with higher taxes during the period EDS recordeda drop in its Net Profits after Taxes reaching USD 0.310 million in 9M17 vis-a-vis USD 0.410 million in 9M16. On the operational front EDS continues to exhibit incremental growth rising 2.6% in Revenues recording USD 0.734 million in 9M17 as opposed to USD 0.716 million in 9M16. 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 continued to be the main driver and the major contributor to Egytrans' strong revenues for 9M17 that have positively affected different lines of business such as land transport, storage and other handling services. As expected, with the safe and timely completion or near completion of a number of mega projects that have started in 2016 such as BeniSuef, South Helwan Power Station, and New Capital during3Q17revenues have started to decline. Offseting this trend,Egytrans' regular business has exhibited considerable growth during the period with Air Freight and Sea Freight volumes increasing by 16% and 19%, respectively during 9M17 compared to 9M16. In addition, Egytrans has commenced trial operations on its pilot project in land transport, as part of the diversification of revenue strategy, building capacity to expand operations in transport and logistics. The newly launched project will comprise 5 container trucks as a start-up fleet for regular container transport, which is foreseen as an added revenue stream with potential for further expansion.
