By Stuart Condie
SYDNEY–WiseTech Global Ltd. upgraded its annual earnings guidance after new customer wins and price rises helped the logistics software firm lift first-half profit by 77%.
The ASX-listed company reported an underlying net profit for the six months through June of 77.3 million Australian dollars (US$55.6 million), compared with A$43.6 million a year earlier. Revenue jumped by 18% to A$281.0 million as WiseTech’s logistics customers invested against a backdrop of port congestion and higher freight costs.
“Top-line revenue growth, coupled with our organization-wide efficiencies and acquisition synergies extraction program, is enabling us to drive operating leverage,” WiseTech Chief Executive Richard White said.
Excluding currency movements, revenue rose by 22% on year.
The average analyst forecast had been for a profit of A$76.5 million off revenue of A$298.6 million, according to data compiled by FactSet.
Including one-off items, statutory profit rose by 74% to A$77.4 million. The board declared a dividend of 4.75 Australian cents per share, up from 2.7 Australian cents a year earlier.
WiseTech reaffirmed that it expects revenue to rise by 18%-25% over the 12 months through June, but raised its guidance for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. It now sees Ebitda increasing by between 33% and 43% to A$275 million-A$285 million, compared with a previous expectation of 26-38%.
It issued its previous guidance in August along with news that its FY 2021 annual profit had more than doubled.
Ebitda–a measure closely watched by analysts–rose by 54% to A$137.7 million for the first half of the 2022 fiscal year.
WiseTech said it had secured global rollouts with FedEx Corp. and Glencore Plc.-owned Access World during the reporting period, and had signed a similar agreement with The Brink’s Company early in its fiscal second half.
Write to Stuart Condie at [email protected]
