July 26, 2021
- Economic Sales grew by 7.2%
- Consolidates business good performance this year, with Operating Profit up 29.5% and Adjusted Operating Profit up 22.6%
- Logista's Board of Directors approves an interim dividend of 54 million euros, 0.41 euros per share, 5.1% higher than last year's interim dividend
Logista, the leading proximity distribution company in Southern Europe, today presented its third quarter results for the 2021 fiscal year, which reflect the Group's strong performance with growth in the main income statement aggregates, in line with previous quarters of the year.
Economic Sales grew by 7.2% to 909 million euros, due to improvements in all geographies and activities. Particularly noteworthy were the Economic Sales of parcels business (Nacex), pharma and distribution of convenience products, which offset lower activity in tobacco distribution in Portugal.
Adjusted Operating Profit (Adjusted EBIT) reached 215 million euros, an increase of 22.6% compared to the first nine months of the previous year.
The good performance of the business, the lower impact of Covid-19 on results, the improvement in the impact of inventory valuation and the efficiency improvements carried out led to a significant increase in the Adjusted Operating Profit margin on Economic Sales, which was 23.6% compared to 20.7% in the same period of 2020.
Operating Profit increased by 29.5% to 174 million euros.
Finally, Net Profit increased by 32.6% to 137 million euros.
Logista also reported Financial Results significantly higher than in the same period last year, reaching 14 million euros, compared to 8 million euros last year. This increase is mainly due to the interest generated by the excess payments on account of corporate income tax in Spain during the 2017 and 2018 financial years, in accordance with a ruling of the Constitutional Court. The effective tax rate was 27.3%, the same as the previous year.
COVID-19 is not estimated to have had a significant impact on the third quarter results in any of the markets.
Iñigo Meirás, CEO of Logista, said that "the results for the third quarter are very positive. In fact, we are growing in all the activities and markets in which Logista operates. At a time when the healthcare crisis continues to impact many businesses, the strength of the Group and the efforts of the entire Logista team have enabled us to continue to post growth in the main figures on the income statement”.
Logista's Board of Directors approved on 22nd July the distribution of an interim dividend for 2021 of 54 million euros, i.e., 0.41 euros per share, to be paid on 27th August 2021. This is an increase in the amount paid as interim dividend for 2020 of 5.1%, instead of paying one third of the total dividend paid in the previous year, as had been the usual method of calculation. This decision of the Board of Directors is in response to the good performance of the Group's business. It should be recalled that the General Meeting of Shareholders held in February approved the distribution of a final dividend for 2020 of 104 million euro (0.79 euros per share), paid on 26th February, bringing the total dividend for 2020 to 1.18 euros per share.
Following the results of this third quarter, Logista maintains its positive expectations for the end of 2021 and forecasts double-digit growth in Adjusted Operating Profit compared to the end of 2020. Despite this, it is important to bear in mind the uncertainty that the different countries in which Logista operates are experiencing in relation to the evolution of Covid-19, with the successive waves caused by the spread of new variants of the virus, which may once again lead to containment measures by governments.