German postal and logistics firm Deutsche Post DHL (DPO.L, DEUPF.PK) on Thursday reported a profit for the fourth quarter, compared to a loss last year, helped by lower items and higher revenues. Further, the company hiked its dividend over 8 percent.
The company's net profit was at 487 million euros (about $675.52 million) compared to a loss of 283 million euros last year. On a per share basis, earnings were 0.40 euros, in comparison with a loss of 0.24 euros last year.
The latest results benefited from a marked reduction in restructuring costs, non-recurrence of last year's negative impact of the Arcandor insolvency as well as the positive effects from the Postbank transaction valuation.
Underlying earnings before interest and tax, or EBIT, rose 12.7 percent to 593 million euros from 526 million euros in the previous year.
Quarterly revenue increased 12 percent to 13.87 billion euros from last year's 12.39 billion euros, due to the robust growth produced by the DHL divisions.
In Global Forwarding, Freight segment revenue increased 25.8 percent to 3.9 billion euros, while Supply Chain revenues advanced 14 percent to 3.57 billion euros. During the quarter, Express revenues increased 8.7 percent to 2.90 billion euros and Mail revenues edged up 0.9 percent to 3.81 billion euros.
For the full year, net profit increased to 2.5 billion euros from 644 million euros. Earnings per share advanced to 2.10 euros from 0.53 euros last year. Revenue increased over 11 percent to 51.48 billion euros from last year's 46.20 billion euros, helped by vigorous top-line growth in all DHL divisions.
The company announced a dividend of 0.65 euros per share, up from the 0.60 euros per share paid last year.
Commenting on the results, Frank Appel, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Post DHL, said, "Our strong performance in 2010 clearly demonstrates that we positioned ourselves at an early stage to be fit for the economic upswing and that our Strategy 2015 is increasingly bearing fruit. This past year was an important milestone on our way to sustainably increasing the company's earnings strength."
The company expects the global economy to continue to recover, fuelling revenue and earnings growth at its DHL divisions. Consolidated net profit, adjusted for effects related to the valuation of the Postbank transaction, should also continue to improve during 2011 in line with the operating business, it added. Deutsche Post DHL expects an EBIT of between EUR 2.2 billion and EUR 2.4 billion in fiscal 2011.
The company's stock closed on the Xetra on Wednesday at 12.94 euros, up 0.93%, on 4.61 million shares.
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