Financial Highlights

Figures in the table above have been rounded

Agility’s Financial Results for Full Year and Q4 2016

Agility, a leading global logistics provider, today announced its 2016 financial results, reporting a net profit of KD 59.1 million, or 51.3 fils per share, an increase of 10.6% over the same period in 2015. Revenue for the year stood at KD 1,234.0 million and EBITDA at KD 115.2 million.

For the fourth quarter 2016, Agility reported a net profit of KD 15.7 million with an earnings-per-share of 13.6 fils, an increase of 9.7 % over the same period in 2015. EBITDA for the quarter stood at KD 31.4 million, an increase of 18.4% over last year.

Board of Directors Recommendation

In view of growing optimism and ongoing progress to date with respect to Agility’s 2020 EBITDA target of USD 800 Million, the Board of Directors is proposing a three-pronged distribution recommendation to the Annual General Assembly of the shareholders:
• A cash dividends distribution of 15% (15 fils per share); and
• A bonus shares distribution of 10% (10 shares for every 100 shares) for the fiscal year 2016; and
• A share buyback program to increase Agility’s treasury share inventory up to 10% of its total share capital, subject to and in compliance with the rules and the regulations set forth by the CMA and other relevant regulatory authorities.

Agility Consolidated Results

“Agility continues to steadily improve its financial performance, with Agility GIL closing the year with an EBITDA improvement of 17.0% and Agility’s Infrastructure group showing an EBITDA improvement of 30.1%. Agility generates healthy cash flows, and remains on track to reach its goal of $800 million in EBITDA by 2020.” said Tarek Sultan, Agility CEO. “To reach our target, we are focused on both continuously improving our underlying performance in GIL, while also investing for the future in our Infrastructure companies. Agility is growing its Infrastructure businesses: undertaking a number of major industrial real estate projects in the Middle East and Africa over the course of the next few years, expanding the shipping fleet of its Tristar business, and investing in the Reem mega-mall in Abu Dhabi. Agility’s balance sheet will move towards a net debt position as our Infrastructure companies fund their expansion plan.”

Agility’s Global Integrated Logistics (GIL)

Agility Global Integrated Logistics (GIL) revenues decreased 7.0% to KD 928.4 million over the same period last year. However, GIL’s net revenues grew by 1% on a constant currency basis.

“GIL continues to make progress. Profitability is increasing, with EBITDA margins improving from 2.7% in 2015 to 3.5% over the course of 2016. Volumes are growing: air freight tonnage grew by 9.8% and TEUs grew by 9.3%, with better margins in both air and ocean. Our contract logistics business, with more than 20 million square feet of warehousing space across the globe, also grew by 7.4% this year,” said Sultan. “That said, ongoing pressure on rates, and a Project Logistics business that is impacted by low oil prices and subsequent delays in capital spending, have challenged the top line.”

GIL continues to focus on improving operational performance through technology-driven transformation; strengthening commercial performance through its tradelanes program, sales excellence, and suite of online solutions, and maintaining cost discipline. GIL is also building its leadership pipeline though talent development programs for executives, regional managers and branch managers.

Agility’s Infrastructure Companies

Revenues for Agility’s infrastructure companies grew by 1.1% on a reported basis (14.8% on a constant currency basis). On the EBITDA level, this translates into a 30.1% increase driven mainly by Agility Real Estate and Tristar.

Agility Real Estate continues to be the strongest contributor to Agility’s performance. In 2016, Agility Real Estate opened new distribution centres for Dammam, Saudi Arabia; and opened the first Agility Distribution Park in Ghana, which is fully leased.

Tristar is a fully integrated liquid logistics company serving the downstream oil and gas industry with solutions like surface transport, ocean shipping, dangerous goods warehousing and fuel farm management. The company has a presence in 17 countries spread across the GCC, Africa, Asia Pacific and Central America. Key accomplishments in 2016 included the acquisition of Abu Dhabi based Eships and expanding its fleet of ships; commissioning its first polyethylene silo and bagging facility in the Jebel Ali free Zone, and expansion of the company’s warehousing and logistics infrastructure in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman.

National Aviation Services (NAS) is now present in 12 countries and in more than 30 airports across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. In 2016, NAS celebrated its one-year anniversary in Cote d’Ivoire, and was awarded a- concession for all of Morocco’s international airports.

UPAC is one of the leading real estate and facility management companies in Kuwait, with key operations within the Kuwait Internal Airport, Sheikh Saad Terminal and Discovery Mall. In 2015, UPAC signed a partnership agreement with the National Real Estate Company (NREC) to develop Reem Mall, a planned two-million square foot mega-mall in Abu Dhabi with 450 shops.

Financial Performance for 2016

• Agility’s net profit stands at KD 59.1 million, a 10.6% increase from KD 53.4 million in 2015. EPS was 51.3 fils, compared with 53.4 fils a year earlier.
• EBITDA stands at KD 115.2 million, a 15.4% increase from 2015.
• Agility’s revenue for 2016 is KD 1,234.0 million, a decrease of 5.3% from KD 1,303.5 million in 2015. Net revenue increased by 5.6%.
• GIL’s revenue stood at KD 928.4 million, 4.7% decrease from 2015 if adjusted for currency impact (-7.0% on reported basis).
• Infrastructure’s revenue was KD 317.9 million compared with KD 314.3 million in 2015, a 14.8% increase from 2015 on constant currency basis (+1.1% increase on reported basis).
• Agility enjoys a healthy balance sheet with KD 1,544.0 million in assets. Net Debt position was KD 45.0 million as of Dec. 31, 2016 (on account of increase in project financed debt in Tristar) and operating cash flow of KD 76.0 million for full year 2016.

Closing

“Agility starts 2017 with a strong position and confidence in our direction. We have our challenges, however we also see many opportunities on the horizon and are investing accordingly. We are making bets on the importance of using technology to better serve customers in GIL, as well as investing to grow our Infrastructure companies exponentially,” said Sultan. “We are making good progress towards our 2020 target, and want to thank our customers, employees, partners and shareholders for their ongoing support.” said Sultan.

Move gives Agility increased warehouse space

BIRMINGHAM – March 1, 2017 – Agility, a leading global logistics provider, has expanded its Fairs & Events warehouse and office space by shifting to larger premises within the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) Complex in Birmingham.

Agility Fairs & Events​ has been based at the NEC for 40 years, making it the longest-standing warehouse tenant at the Birmingham site. The move reflects Agility’s need for additional space to serve customers and gives the company a considerably increased presence at the venue.

“We are fortunate to have found a great facility so close to our current offices at the NEC. Agility Fairs & Events has enjoyed a close working relationship with the NEC for four decades, and we are delighted that we will be able to continue this successful relationship,” said David Richards, Regional Director for Agility Fairs & Events Europe.

The new facility triples Agility’s on-site NEC warehouse space, allowing it to offer specialized services to better serve event organizers, exhibitors and key account clients. Among the services Agility Fairs & Events offers at NEC:

• Tailored, multimodal logistics
• Customs clearance and liaison
• Site handling services requiring forklifts, cranes and Agility’s technical team
• Courier shipment management
• Storage of exhibition and event materials

“By relocating within the NEC premises, we have been able to limit the impact of the move on our clients and employees. Our new location and enhanced operational efficiencies will help us continue to grow, evolve and keep pace with our clients’ needs, allowing us to provide exceptional value and superior service,” Richards said.

Kathryn James, Managing Director NEC Group Conventions and Exhibitions, said: “We work closely with our organizers and partners to help their businesses grow, and we are delighted that this has been the case for Agility Fairs & Events. We hope that their new premises enables the business to continue expanding.”

Agility Fairs & Events can be found at:

Units 11 / 12
Second Exhibition Avenue
NEC
Birmingham, UK, B40 1PJ​

​​First freight forwarder to receive SACEOS status in Singapore

SINGAPORE – February 21, 2017 – Agility, a leading global logistics provider, is the first freight forwarder to receive the Singapore Association of Convention and Exhibition Organisers and Suppliers (SACEOS) Sustainability Certification.

The SACEOS certification covers quality, environment, health and safety, and security (QEHSS); policy and management systems, procurement guidelines for selecting fuel-efficient trucks and forklifts, waste management, and procedures for consolidating shipping of events materials. The certification is intended to encourage use of sustainable supply chain practices among companies that organize or provide services for conferences, exhibitions, meetings and incentive travel.

“Being the first freight forwarder to receive this certification in Singapore reflects the strength of our fairs and events business here, and the importance Agility places on sustainability practices as an organization,” said Priscilla Leong, Global COO, Agility Fairs & Events. “Strong QEHSS standards are increasingly important to customers and event organizers. This certification is another way of highlighting the importance of sustainability practices across the industry in Singapore.”

Agility’s Fairs & Events business is one of the world’s leading exhibition forwarding specialists, handling more than 8,000 major trade fairs, exhibitions, and events each year. Globally, Agility is a leader in environmental management, and health and safety practices in the logistics industry. It recycles packaging materials, tracks vehicles to ensure efficient truck deployment, and has a program to reduce energy and paper use. Employees in Asia can report workplace safety issues or trigger on-line facility inspections with a newly deployed mobile app. Agility has also signed an agreement with Maersk Line to cut CO2 emissions by 15% per container by 2020.

The SACEOS certification is the latest sustainability accolade for Agility. In the United Kingdom, Agility Fairs & Events received ISO 14001 and ISO 20121 certifications for environmental management and event sustainability, making it one of the first exhibition logistics companies to achieve these standards. Globally, Agility was awarded a silver rating for its corporate social responsibility efforts by Ecovadis, an independent sustainability-rating platform for global supply chains, the third consecutive year Agility has received this award. The rating places Agility in the top ten percent of transportation suppliers and in the top 15% of all companies assessed by Ecovadis.

​Facility will serve fast-growing Indian life sciences exporters, offers partnership with va-Q-tec

HYDERABAD, India – Feb. 3rd, 2017 – Agility, a leading global logistics provider, has opened the first temperature-controlled life sciences storage and handling facility in the Hyderabad Airport Zone.

Agility’s 6,000-square-foot Life Sciences Excellence Center (LSEC) at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is strategically placed to serve pharma manufacturers in Hyderabad, Goa, Pune, Vishakhapatnam and Bangalore. The centre will provide conditioning, preparation and storage of pharmaceutical goods and operate as a control tower for Agility life sciences customers in India.

Detlev Janik, CEO of Agility South Asia, said: “Life sciences is one of the cornerstones of the Indian economy with exports expected to grow an astonishing 60% in 2017. This new center will help fast-growing Indian life sciences companies meet the rising global demand for their products.”

The center will operate as the primary warehouse for solutions from va-Q-tec, an advanced passive packaging company specializing in high-end, secured cold chain products. va-Q-tec’s containers and boxes keep the required temperature for five days or longer without any external energy supply. The LSEC will house va-Q-tec’s inventory, perform quality checks, conditioning and preparation of containers, and box packaging for va-Q-tec’s products before the release of packaging for customers.

“Our partnership with Agility is a further example of how va-Q-tec develops and provides transportation systems with accompanying services for life sciences logistics. The cooperation will further strengthen va-Q-tec’s footprint in India, one of the fastest growing pharma exporters,” said va-Q-tec CEO Dr. Joachim Kuhn.

Global logistics executives recently selected India as the emerging market with the most potential and as the top investment destination for their countries in a survey that was part of the 2017 Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index. India ranked as the No. 2 overall market in the rankings, which rated 50 countries based on market size and attractiveness, business conditions, and logistics and transport infrastructure and connections. India’s Goods & Services Tax reform was cited as a source for optimism among executives surveyed. China topped the 50-country rankings.

Agility is one of the largest freight forwarders and logistics providers in India, where it operates from 61 locations and controls 150,000 square meters of warehouse space covering all major ports, airports and inland locations in the country. In the pharmaceutical sector, Agility helps companies move, store, distribute and manage goods in the highly attractive Indian market and helps Indian companies looking to explore opportunities outside of the country.

India stands out in annual logistics Index, but executives show concern about 2017

BAAR, Switzerland – Jan. 24, 2017 – Nearly 69% of logistics professionals say they worry about a retreat from free trade in 2017 following the UK’s Brexit vote and the collapse of global and regional trade talks, a new survey shows.

The survey of more than 800 global logistics and supply chain executives is part of the 2017 Agility Emerging Markets Logistics Index, an annual snapshot of industry sentiment and a ranking of the world’s 50 leading emerging markets by size, business conditions, infrastructure and transport connections.

A significant minority – 43% — said the International Monetary Fund’s 2017 emerging markets growth forecast of 4.6% is too optimistic.

India was a standout in the survey and country rankings. Logistics professionals picked India as the emerging market with the most logistics potential and the country where their companies are most likely to invest. India climbed past United Arab Emirates to No. 2 in the Index after China.

2017 Index highlights:

• Twenty-four of the 50 countries – including seven of the top 10 — experienced a year-over-year deterioration in their Index scores, reflecting stagnation in global trade growth and turbulence in emerging markets.
• China, the world’s second-largest economy, remains the world’s leading emerging market. In the survey, supply chain executives identified the direction of China’s economy as the factor most likely to drive global economic and trade growth in 2017. Seventy-six percent said China’s slowing economy is slowing, but only 17% said the slowdown is significantly hurting the transport and logistics sector. Sixty-six percent said lower growth will not alter their plans in China.
• Robust growth and long-anticipated tax and economic reform pushed India to No. 2 in the Index and impressed the logistics executives surveyed. Even so, India’s surprise decision to remove high-denomination bank notes from circulation and encourage cashless payments could be jarring for the economy in 2017.
• UAE, No. 3 overall in the Index, again topped the rankings in the areas of business climate, and in logistics infrastructure and transport connections. Gulf countries UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait claimed six of the top 10 spots for best business conditions.
• Iran climbed eight spots in the Index rankings to 18th overall and leaped to 9th from No. 15 among emerging markets countries that executives view as having the most potential to grow as logistics markets. Iran’s gains were the biggest of any country in the Index or the survey.

Africa’s biggest economies – Nigeria and South Africa – were among the countries that fell most sharply in the Index. Smaller African markets – Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenya – improved their rankings in 2017.

Brazil held its No. 7 Index ranking despite a painful recession and the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. In the survey, logistics executives again picked Brazil as the the market with the most logistics potential after India and China. One reason for their optimism: nearly 57% expect commodity prices to rebound in 2017, although most do not expect significant increases.

Bahrain jumped five spots in the latest Index to No. 23 after years of social unrest that hurt its ranking. Argentina, attempting to end years of international economic isolation, climbed three places to No. 28. Kazakhstan shot up four spots to No. 14, largely on the strength of business conditions that ranked behind only those of four Gulf countries – UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

Turkey weathered the effects of an attempted coup and extremist violence, moving from 10th to No. 9 in the latest Index. Russia fell from 9th to No. 10, a modest slip suggesting that has contained the fallout from Western economic sanctions and low energy prices.

The Index, in its eighth year, ranks emerging markets countries by factors that make them attractive to logistics providers, freight forwarders, shipping lines, air cargo carriers and distributors.

Essa Al-Saleh, CEO of Agility Global Integrated Logistics, said logistics providers and their customers are concerned that anti-globalization feeling and populist policies in the UK and United States could spread and harm trade in emerging markets that rely heavily on exports.

“Emerging markets continue to deliver the highest growth rates in the world, but as links in the global supply chain, countries can be extremely hard to evaluate,” Al-Saleh said. “The Index and the survey are useful when it comes to identifying the relative strengths and weaknesses of individual markets.”

Transport Intelligence (Ti), a leading analysis and research firm for the logistics industry, compiled the Index.

John Manners-Bell, Chief Executive of Ti, said: “Uncertainty and volatility have characterized many emerging markets in 2016. This has been compounded by the political environment in Europe and the U.S., which will have direct consequences on trade with Latin America, Asia and Africa. However there have been many positives too — for example, the strong performance of India. More than ever, the Index identifies and contrasts those markets which will prosper from the most vulnerable and poorest performing.”