Revenue for Mainfreight's half-year trading to September rose from $1.11 billion a year ago to $1.14 billion, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) rose 20.6% to $86.35 million, and after-tax profit rose 27% from $32.8 million to $41.8 million.
Mainfreight's managing director, Don Braid, said ebitda performance in the first half-year had improved across all regions. Only the Americas were disappointing, with single-digit growth.
''Results from New Zealand were particularly pleasing,'' Mr Braid said in a statement.
Mainfreight's first-half dividend was up 3c to 17c per share.
Mr Braid said while the impact of decreasing ocean freight rates had an effect on Mainfreight's Air & Ocean
division, its international trade volumes were on the increase.
He said all New Zealand operations continued to show improved financial performance and gains in market share, while gross margins increased and management of overhead costs contributed to the ''excellent result''.
Total New Zealand revenue was up 6.1% at $287.55 million, while ebitda improved 28.2% to $37.16 million, up $8.17 million on a year ago.
Growth in domestic freight volume continued as Main- freight secured additional market share.
''It is expected that pre-Christmas volumes will be at record levels for the business, necessitating additional road and coastal shipping resource to offset a lack of rail capacity,'' Mr Braid said.
Craigs Investment Partners broker Peter McIntyre said the underlying revenue was far stronger than the 2.5% headline figure, when excluding foreign exchange impacts and decline in revenue because of ocean freight rates.
Mainfreight's outlook ''remained positive'', with October and November trading in line with first-half growth.
Forsyth Barr broker Damian Foster said Mainfreight delivered a ''very strong'' profit result, consistent with guidance, driven by margin expansion, particularly in the domestic operation.
''Apparent lacklustre sales growth stems from adverse currency translation, negatively impacted by -1.7%, and lower ocean freight rates, down 2.4%, so we're not overly concerned,'' he said.
Given management were positive on second-half earnings and pre-Christmas volumes were strong, Mr Foster believed there was scope for further consensus earnings upgrades.
Mainfreight's American interests did not see the same levels of growth and profitability as the rest of its network, with sales revenues down 0.9% to $US226.10 million ($NZ306.53 million), but ebitda results improved, up 4.5% to $US9.81 million.
The revenue decline was due to the large exposure to international shipping through the Mainfreight Air & Ocean business and operations of CaroTrans, Mr Braid said.
While Mainfreight's Australian sales revenues did not grow as aggressively as Mr Braid would have liked, he said margin improvement and better cost control delivered a pleasing financial performance.
Sales revenues were up 3.6% to $A257.65 million ($NZ270.10 million) and ebitda levels improved 22.1% to $A16.09 million, with all three divisions ahead of last year's result.
''Margin levels were better in all three businesses, particularly in our Logistics operations, where current customer demand requires us to expand into additional facilities,'' Mr Braid said.
Mainfreight's Asian operations continued to perform satisfactorily, particularly during the first three months of the half-year, but changes in air freight demand saw performance decline during the last three months.
Sales revenues increased 45.3% to $US31.45 million, Mr Braid said.
When inter-company revenue was included, Asia sales growth improved 32.9% on a year ago and ebitda levels improved 20.7% to $US4.73 million.
European operations continued to provide better financial performance, with strong improvements in Mainfreight's Logistics operations assisting the result.
Sales revenues improved 4.4% over a year ago to 136.47 million ($NZ203.69 million) and ebitda totalled 7.65 million, up 29.7%, Mr Braid said.
