Expolanka delivers best-ever results in 4Q amid pandemic-fuelled growth in freight

Expolanka Holdings PLC produced its best ever financial performance in the three months ended March 31, 2021 (4Q21) as the logistics juggernaut stood well positioned to benefit from the pandemic-induced disruptions to supply chains which shifted most consignments into high yielding air freight segment. 

Expolanka reported revenues of Rs.75.5 billion for the three months, up 218 percent from the same period in 2020, as the company got busy in facilitating consignments to reach their destination ports at a time when the normal supply chains came under strain due to the pandemic. 

“The extraordinary results we achieved this year has been in the backdrop of an extremely dynamic operating environment which has been impacted by reduced capacity, elevated rates and weak global trade,” said Group CEO Hanif Yusoof. 

The company generated increased trade volumes from both existing and new customers while keeping yields stable, supported predominantly by the elevated air freight rates.   

The company reported earnings of Rs.2.05 a share or Rs.3.99 billion for the quarter under review recovering from a loss of Rs.361.6 million or 18 cents a share reported for the same quarter in 2020. 

For the full financial year ended in March 2021, the company reported earnings of Rs.7.59 a share or Rs.14.8 billion, swinging from a loss of Rs.736.6 million or 38 cents a share in the year ended in March 2020. The revenues more than doubled to Rs.218.7 billion in the year from Rs.103.2 billion in the previous year. 

“The airfreight portfolio continued to be the largest contributor of profitability for the sector, whilst the Ocean freight segment continued to build on its strong progress during the year,” Yusoof added.

Meanwhile, the business has continued to be driven by the North America trade lane as the company saw a renewed growth there as the United States in particular was fast returning to normalcy on accelerated vaccination drive and their lifting of restrictions on daily life as the Americans fight for their individual freedoms, unlike in Sri Lanka where everyone asks the government to lock them down and to police them as they are in a false belief that the State can feed them.    

Expolanka was among the early beneficiaries of the pandemic and its stock became a darling among big and small investors alike as the share  soared from just Rs.2.00 on March 31, 2020 to Rs.44.70 a year later. 

By the close of trading for last week, the Expolanka share was trading at Rs.46.70, down 2.30 percent or Rs.1.10, giving the company a market capitalisation of Rs.91.3 billion or just under 3.0 percent of the total market capitalisation.

Japan’s SG Holdings held 75.62 percent stake in Expolanka by March-end, while Yusoof held 7.52 percent stake being the company’s second largest shareholder. 

Expolanka group has two other business verticals – leisure and investments. While the leisure sector turned to cost optimisation measures aggressively to sustain operations till tourism trade returns to normalcy, the investments segment was helped by its major sub-segment of export operations. However, the two segments closed the year in red.