Deutsche Post DHL showed an increase in EBIT to €646m in the third quarter from €604m last year while revenue was down by €300m to €13.5bn.
Third quarter sales fell slightly to €3.5bn in DHL’s Supply Chain division as a result of exchange rate effects and the impact of disposal of three non-core businesses during.
However, it generated €350m of new contracts during he quarter and operating earnings totalled €100 m, the highest level reached this year. The decline from last year’s total (2012: €110m) mainly reflects the weak market environment in Europe.
The group the strongest performance came in the Asia-Pacific region as well as in the Life Sciences & Healthcare, Automotive, Consumer and Technology sectors.
The Express division also saw a slight fall in sales to €3.1bn as a result of exchange rate effects. However, EBIT jumped by 13.9 per cent in the past quarter to €263 m (2012: €231m).
The group said Express had seen above-market-growth increases in volume in all regions. At the same time, operational improvements produced by extensive investments made in the expansion of the network, the training of employees and the range of services were reflected in the rise in the operating margin.
In the Global Forwarding and Freight division EBIT rose to €127m from €122m last year. Third-quarter revenues fell by 7.6 per cent to €3.7 bn (2012: €4.0bn) as a result of the continued weak market environment.
Earnings in the Mail division rose 6.1 per cent to €261m while revenues were up five per cent to €3.4bn. The business has focused on expanding its parcels operations to offset the decline in the domestic German letters market and it said that parcels now accounted for a quarter of the division’s revenue.
“With our successful performance in the still volatile environment, we have demonstrated the fundamental strength of our business model once again and are reaping the fruits of the investments we have made in the past,” said Frank Appel, the chief executive officer of Deutsche Post DHL.
For the full year, the group expects EBIT to rise to between €2.75bn and €3bn. Looking further ahead, the group said it expected earnings momentum to continue despite persistent economic uncertainty. DHL is expected to generate an annual average earnings gain of between 13 per cent and 15 per cent during the period between 2010 and 2015.
