 "Blue Dart Express Q3 net profit falls 28.2% on back of higher expenses")
BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian courier services provider Blue Dart Express reported a 28.2% fall in quarterly profit on Wednesday, as high fuel costs hit margins, while demand also slowed.
Net profit fell - for the first time since June 2020 - to 886.6 million rupees ($10.87 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31 from 1.23 billion rupees a year earlier.
Blue Dart said revenue from operations climbed 6.6% to 13.37 billion rupees, marking its slowest growth in the last nine quarters.
The Deutsche Post DHL Group-controlled firm is still grappling with high expenses as aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices - which Motilal Oswal analysts say forms 40% of expenses for air express logistics firms - have not a tracked a recent fall in brent crude prices.
In addition to ATF prices, high inflation, rising wages and the rupee's depreciation against the U.S. dollar - that made imports more expensive - hurt revenue growth, the company said.
Until recently, Blue Dart had benefited from a post-pandemic-led online sales boom, as people have taken to the ease of shopping from the comforts of their homes after trying it out during the coronavirus lockdowns.
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It had previously announced a 9.6% hike in average shipment prices for 2023 - which it undertakes annually to offset rising costs.
For the quarter, Blue Dart's core earnings margin was 12.3%, compared with 16.9% a year earlier, as total expenses jumped 11%.
($1 = 81.5800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Priya Sagar & Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
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