New Delhi: Logistics firm Delhivery reported a rise in fourth-quarter revenue on Friday as it clocked strong volumes in segments such as part truckload (PTL) freight, and truckload services.
Revenue from services grew to ₹2,076 crore in the quarter from ₹1,860 crore a year ago, while loss after tax narrowed to ₹69 crore from ₹159 crore a year ago. On an annual basis, revenue from services rose 13% to ₹8,142 crore in FY24 while losses narrowed to ₹249 crore from ₹1,008 crore in FY23.
“FY24 has been a crucial year for us. We delivered consistent service levels, significantly improved profitability, completed a large portion of our planned long-term capital investments, and achieved material working-capital improvement”, CEO Sahil Barua said in a statement.
However, it missed analysts’ expectations. On an average, analysts estimated the company would report a quarterly revenue of ₹2,134.20 crore and a loss of ₹23 crore, according to Bloomberg data.
Analysts believe the worse-than-expected results and slowdown in express parcel growth are due to Meesho’s efforts to implement in-house logistics. In February, Meesho launched its logistics-focused platform Valmo to tackle supply-chain inefficiencies in e-commerce deliveries.
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“Results have been quite encouraging on realisations but a miss on volumes. Besides the slowdown on an industry level, the result is also due to the impact of insourcing by Meesho. Growth within all other segments including PTL and supply chain is quite encouraging, indicative of continued market share gain by the company,” said Lokesh Maru, a research analyst at Nippon India Mutual Fund.
While revenue from express parcel services grew by 12% to ₹5,077 crore in FY24, its other segments saw a higher growth. Revenue from PTL grew 31% to ₹1,517 crore in FY24. Revenue from supply chain services was ₹776 crore, truckload services ₹609 crore and cross-border services ₹153 crore.
Delhivery Robotics to research drones
Before announcing its Q4 results, the company said it has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary, Delhivery Robotics Pvt Ltd, to conduct research and development in drone technology and manufacturing. The proposal was approved at the company’s board meeting on 17 May. The company has a proposed authorised capital of ₹5 crore. Authorised capital is the maximum amount of share capital a company is allowed to issue to shareholders according to its constitutional documents.
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It will research “various form factors and payloads” for eventual type certification and commercialisation, the company said. It will also offer drone-as-a-service (DaaS) for shipment movement and remote sensing.
It will produce and sell UAVs globally, and conduct third-party manufacturing composite airframe components, component procurement, integration, quality testing and flight trials, it said.
Delhivery also said that it has approved the liquidation of Delhivery Corp Limited, its UK subsidiary.
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In addition, the company announced the resignation of its executive director and chief business officer Sandeep Kumar Barasia effective 1 July, 2024 for “personal reasons”. Delhivery shares closed at ₹453.85 on Friday evening.
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Published: 17 May 2024, 06:04 PM IST