CTT closed the first half of the year with a net profit of 19.8 million euros, a drop of 24% compared to the same period last year, according to the statement sent this Monday to CMVM.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) also fell 11.6% to 70.8 million euros.
Operating revenues rose 9.1% to 524.3 million euros, growth driven by the Express and Parcels segment, but which did not mitigate the 13.3% increase in expenses, to over 453 million euros. The company justified the increase in costs with “the increase in Logistics activity, especially Express and Parcels. Personnel expenses also grew by 8.9 million (+4.6%) in the period, “essentially due to the salary increase (+6.9 million euros), including the increase in the national minimum wage”, details the group.
The driving force behind revenue growth continues to be the Express and Parcels area, which accounts for 40% of the group’s total revenue. Operating revenue from Express and Parcels reached €210.4 million, a growth of 48.9% driven by a 53.5% increase in traffic in the Iberian Peninsula, which exceeded 63 million items in the first six months of the year, with traffic in the second quarter being close to the levels recorded in the fourth quarter (peak season), which is usually the best of the year due to Christmas.
In the same statement, CTT recalls that the business in Spain and Portugal has been standardized into a single Iberian offering, namely “through the homogenization of the product portfolio, commercial approach, customer segmentation and pricing methodology”. And given the limited growth of the market in Portugal, due to its size, the company has been evaluating possible new business opportunities in this area in the neighboring country.
In fact, the increase in this segment more than offset the drop in financial services due to the lower volume of public debt placement, after last year – at the same time – there was a rush on savings certificates. This business area recorded revenues of 73.3 million, which represents a drop of 31.3%.
The drop in subscriptions to savings certificates was due to the drastic reduction in maximum investment limits per subscriber. However, CTT’s outlook for this year is positive: “It is expected that a possible future change in the marketing conditions will increase subscriptions to this product”.
Furthermore, in order to improve the results of this item, CTT lhave launched a new online subscription service for savings certificates, done through the postal service app. In the first week since its launch on July 18, the platform registered 5,000 accounts.
Logistics, a new component that CTT now includes in its results, reached 451 million euros, a growth of 20.7%, accounting for 86% of the total income of the company led by João Bento.
Elections boost mail
Mail revenues grew by 3.6% in the first half of the year, “due to the good performance of addressed mail (+2.1%) and business solutions (+10%), the company explains.
CTT details that the mail business benefited in the first quarter from the traffic generated by the legislative elections, but was harmed by the lower number of working days. In the first quarter of 2024, there were two fewer working days compared to the first quarter of 2023, due to Easter this year occurring in the first quarter.
Finally, Banco CTT’s operating income reached 62.1 million up to June, an increase of 2.6%, with the financial margin rising to 47.9 million, an improvement of 4.1%.
“Interest received increased by 28.3 million compared to the same period last year, benefiting from the rise in interest rates and growth in volume”, while interest paid “increased by 26.5 million due to the increase in remuneration rates on customer deposits and car loan securitizations”, details the company led by João Bento, who in an interview with Bloomberg does not rule out selling the bank’s capital, ceasing to be the majority shareholder.
The company also reports that excluding the impact of the exit from the Universo card partnership, the growth in operating income would have been 15.9%.
At the end of the first half of the year, the number of Banco CTT current accounts reached 667 thousand, 20 thousand more than in December 2023.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
