Net profits at Kerry Logistics were up five per cent to 576 million Hong Kong dollars ($73.6 million) in the first half of 2017.
Turnover surged by 31 per cent to HK$13.7 billion with the Integrated Logistics sector seeing profits increasing 11 per cent to HK$884 million and International Freight Forwarding up seven per cent to HK$222 million.
Kerry Logistics Group managing director, William Ma says the period was challenging, with global demand stalling in the first quarter but picking up in the second, with strong performance in Asia and the Americas did well.
Despite these figures Ma was not happy with the results saying: “Core net profit only reported a five per cent growth due to the unsatisfactory performance of our investments in associates, which reported a 52 per cent year-on-year decrease in contribution.”
Kerry Logistics continued its strategy to take advantage of the opportunities from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and subsidiary Globalink Logistics operations gave Kerry access to countries including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.
The Integrated Logistics sector was affected by weak performance in Mainland China but Hong Kong proved strong.
International Freight Forwarding experienced growth helped in Europe by the acquisition of Tuvia Italia and the launch of a new sales office in Poland.
In March 2017 Kerry Logistics entered into a share purchase agreement to divest its 15 per cent interest in Asia Airfreight Terminal Company to Holistic Capital Investment, a subsidiary of Hong Kong Airlines.
The transaction is subject to certain conditions precedent which the directors believe will be satisfied in the third quarter of 2017.
