Deutsche Post DHL Group has announced it increased both revenue and operating profit in the first quarter of 2019 compared with the same period last year.
The company generated €15.4bn ($17.3bn) in revenue between January and March 2019, an increase of 4.1% compared to the same period in the previous year. Operating profit (EBIT) was up 28.1% to €1.2bn (US$1.35bn) with the surge in earnings driven by non-recurring income from completing the supply chain partnership with SF Holding in China initiated at the end of 2018. Previously announced restructuring costs at supply chain and in the new e-commerce solutions division slowed EBIT growth.
“The first quarter played out as we expected. We achieved growth in all five divisions. This shows that we are very well positioned in attractive markets and that our fundamental growth drivers are intact. E-commerce continues to boom all over the world and although some momentum has been lost, global trade is still on the rise, just as we expected for 2019. We are therefore on track towards our target of generating more than €5bn [US$5.6bn] in EBIT in the coming year,” said Frank Appel, CEO of Deutsche Post DHL Group.
Deutsche Post DHL Group is maintaining its projection of an increase in operating profit to between €3.9bn and €4.3bn (US$4.4bn and US$4.8bn) in 2019. Structural and operating improvements in all Group divisions are expected to contribute to the increase. The measures initiated to raise profitability in the Post & Parcel Germany division (P&P) are expected to be one of the main factors having a notably positive impact on earnings over the course of the current financial year.
The P&P division is expected to contribute between €1.0bn and €1.3bn (US$1.1bn and US$1.5bn) to the Group’s projected EBIT for the current year.
In the DHL divisions, the Group anticipates total EBIT growth of between €3.4bn and €3.5bn (US$3.8bn and US$3.9bn). Group EBIT is projected to rise to more than €5.0bn (US$5.6bn) in 2020. The P&P division is expected to contribute more than €1.6bn (US$1.8bn) and the DHL divisions more than €3.7bn (US$4.2bn) to that total.
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