Ceva Logistics Earnings Soar

Pretax profit jumps 73 percent as revenue grows 14 percent
Ceva Logistics, the global supply chain management company, reported strong growth in first quarter profit and revenue driven by cost controls and gains in contract logistics.

The Netherlands-based firm’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose 73.3 percent to $63.5 million in the three months to March 31 from $36.6 million in the year earlier period.

Revenue grew 14.3 percent to $1.8 billion from $1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2009.

The earnings exclude the impact of “significant” non-recurring items such as restructuring and integration costs, rebranding costs and legal expenses.

The company said it had successfully refinanced over $1.2 billion of debt.

The quarter saw strong revenue growth in contract logistics in the retail, consumer and global automotive markets.

Ceva signed new business contracts worth $590 million in the quarter and boosted market share in targeted consumer, retail and technology sectors.

“This is a robust start showing considerable year-on-year improvement, with clear evidence that our continued focus on business development, cash management and structural cost reduction is continuing to deliver results,” said Ceva chief executive officer John Pattullo.

The compression on freight management margins the industry experienced in the final quarter of 2009 continued into 2010 as a result of a pick up in volume coupled with constrained capacity.

But the impact on earnings was mitigated through increased freight volume mainly originating in the Asia-Pacific region.

Ceva, the world’s fourth largest pure logistics company, was created in 2007 by the merger of two firms acquired by U.S. private equity group Apollo Management – the former TNT Logistics of the Netherlands and EGL, a Houston-based freight forwarder.

(Source:www.joc.com)