(Reuters) – India’s Mahindra Logistics reported a smaller quarterly loss on Monday, helped by steady demand in its third-party logistics business and narrower losses in its express commerce segment.
The logistics services provider reported a consolidated net loss – its eighth consecutive quarter – of 90.3 million rupees ($1.05 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of 174.1 million rupees a year ago.
Revenue from operations in the third quarter rose 14% to 15.94 billion rupees.
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KEY CONTEXT
Mahindra Logistics has been battling stiff competition in India’s $342 billion logistics market, and dealing with losses from the 2022 acquisition of express cargo firm Rivigo and higher spends – which grew 13% on-year in the quarter.
The company said that third-party logistics business, its core contract, grew 14% on-year on the back of automotive and consumer goods demand, while losses for the express business narrowed 26.5%.
Analysts had expected the company to report strong growth in its core contract business, driven by demand during India’s festival season, which coincided with the quarter.
The analysts said that while Rivigo would remain loss-making, these would narrow in the coming quarters as volumes pick up.
PEER COMPARISON
Valuation Estimates (next 12 Analysts’ sentiment
(next 12 months)
months)
RIC PE EV/EBI Revenue Profit Mean # of Stock to
TDA growth growth rating* analysts price
(%) (%) target**
Mahindra 38.50 7.81 15.22 797.57 Sell 11 0.86
Logistics Ltd
Blue Dart 35.25 16.65 12.51 43.53 Hold 6 0.87
Express Ltd
Delhivery Ltd 66.79 32.31 15.82 228.33 Buy 22 0.71
VRL Logistics 22.63 8.94 12.46 46.85 Buy 9 0.73
Ltd
* The mean of analysts’ ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell
** The ratio of the stock’s last close to analysts’ mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT
OCTOBER-DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE
— All data from LSEG
— $1 = 86.3310 Indian rupees
(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K and Vijay Kishore)
