Waberer International : had a record year in 2023, being able to pay shareholders an even higher dividend than in the previous year

Waberer's International Nyrt.'s profitability continued to improve in 2023 due to a consistently executed strategy. The sales revenue of the company, which is listed in the Premium category of the Budapest Stock Exchange, grew by 4.6 per cent to EUR 710.9 million, while its net profit increased by 53.6 per cent to EUR 29.7 million. Waberer's EBIT rose by 17 per cent to EUR 42.8 million, while its EBITDA grew by 14.8 per cent to EUR 95.6 million, with the Group achieving record levels for both financial indicators. The company's EBIT and EBITDA margins also continued to improve, respectively from 5.4 to 6 per cent and from 12.3 to 13.4 per cent, due to profits growing at a faster rate than sales revenue. Zsolt Barna, Chairman of the BoD and CEO of Waberer's International Nyrt., believes that the company had a challenging year as industrial production and consumption data in its main markets (Western Europe and Hungary) stagnated or slightly declined for the whole previous year. This affected demand for logistics services directly, while the domestic insurance market, as the relevant for the Group's insurance arm, had to cope with the challenges posed by the industry-specific tax. Against this volatile backdrop, Waberer's concentrated on segments and customers that were less affected by the overall negative economic environment, for which the company's diversified portfolio of customers and services provided a stable base. After a highly successful year in 2023 in spite of the challenging environment, the company's Board of Directors proposes paying a dividend of HUF 120 per share at its Annual General Meeting to be held in April (following the previous year's dividend of HUF 100).

Turnover from the Contract Logistics (RCL) business - as the major scope of Waberer's strategy - rose to EUR 209.8 million (+5.2%) with EBIT up to EUR 15.3 million (+37.3%). The growth in the segment's turnover is thanks to the expansion of logistics supporting automotive and petrochemical production, and successful customer acquisitions. The turnover of Transportation and Freight Forwarding segment (ITS) was up by 2.8 per cent in 2023 to EUR 437.3 million, while its EBIT fell by 9.7 per cent to EUR 8.9 million. The segment managed to achieve a result approaching the previous year's despite having to face with increasing price competition in the spot market due to the overall contraction in demand for transportation services in Europe, as well as longer and more concentrated factory stoppages in the summer compared to the previous year. However, the impact of shorter-term price fluctuations had a limited effect on the result because of the high proportion of key account customers , which customer segment provided a stable demand throughout the year. The revenue of Waberer's Insurance Segment was EUR 82.4 million (+17.7%) while its EBIT result stood at EUR 18.6 million (+19.3%) in 2023. The segment increased the number of contracts in its portfolio by 22 per cent in 2023, while the growing EBIT performance was mostly due to the outstanding investment result in a high interest rate environment.

In presenting the 2023 results, Zsolt Barna pointed out that last year the company updated its strategy, envisaging becoming the leading complex logistics service provider in the Central and Eastern European region by 2027, while its revenue and EBIT operating profit will increase considerably, nearly doubling the figures for 2022. He added that sustainability criteria is in special focus at executing the strategy, and thus the Group develops green services by increasing the share of rail and intermodal transport, and reduces emissions through green investments and energy efficiency measures. Already in 2023, Waberer's had taken significant steps towards achieving the targets set in the strategy as it had started its biggest ever warehouse development in Ecser, and purchased a land in Debrecen for the development of a new logistics centre. The company also announced two major acquisitions in 2023: the acquisition of majority share package in both PSP (Petrolsped) Group, a major player in rail logistics, and the Serbian distribution company MDI. The first results of these developments and acquisitions will become apparent as early as 2024, thus Waberer's will proceed with the execution of its strategy this year. Waberer's Chairman and CEO addedthat it was anticipated that in 2024 turnover would be around EUR 800 million, while EBIT performance would be on a similar level as in last year, over EUR 40 million.