UTi reports higher third quarter profits, revenues

UTi reports higher third quarter profits, revenues    UTi Worldwide, the fast-growing Santo Domingo, Calif.-based forwarding and logistics company, increased its net income 39 percent in the quarter ended Oct. 31 to $13.2 million.
   This compares with last year’s fiscal third-quarter net income of $9.5 million.
   The company’s operating income in the latest quarter increased 26 percent to $18.0 million from $14.2 million this time last year.
   Operating margin, defined as operating income as a percentage of net revenues, equaled 11.5 percent, compared with 13.2 percent in the same quarter a year ago.
   “Operating margins in the current third quarter were reduced by the inclusion of Standard for the full quarter, which traditionally operates at a lower operating margin, compared with other UTi operations,” the company said. Excluding the operating income of Standard Corp., acquired Oct. 1, 2002, the company’s operating profit ratio remained level at 14.1 percent.
   UTi for the seventh consecutive quarter reported increases in revenues and income for the three-month period ended Oct. 31.
   Revenues rose 24 percent to $398.7 million in the August-October quarter. Net revenues grew 46 percent to $156.5 million.
   “These results represent another solid quarter of net revenue gains over the prior year,” said Roger I. MacFarlane, chief executive officer of UTi.
   UTi’s air freight forwarding operations recorded a 23 percent increase in net revenues to $52.2 million in the latest quarter, up from $42.4 million in August-October 2002. “This increase was realized even with last year’s unusually high air freight volumes in response to the West Coast port lockout,” UTi said.
   Ocean freight net revenues rose 12 percent to $19.1 million in the latest quarter.
   The acquisition of Standard bolstered contract logistics net revenues, which totaled $50.7 million in the latest quarter, compared with $20.6 million a year earlier.
   For the nine-month period ended Oct. 31 gross revenues increased 31 percent to $1.1 billion from $832 million for the same period a year ago. Net revenues rose 59 percent to $432.8 million. Operating income improved 31 percent to $44.1 million, while net income increased 48 percent to $32.6 million.
   In a separate announcement, UTi said its president and chief operating officer Peter Thorrington will retire from his executive positions with the company in 2004.
   Thorrington, 58, will remain active with the company until a successor is announced, at which time a transition period and exact retirement date will be determined, the company said. On retirement, Thorrington will continue as a director of the company.
   Thorrington, along with chairman of the board Matthys J. “Tiger” Wessels, MacFarlane and Alan C. Draper, president of the Asia-Pacific region, co-founded UTi Worldwide in 1995.