Kuwait's agility Q1 profit falls 8.1 percent as costs rise

Kuwait’s agility Q1 profit falls 8.1 percent as costs rise

Q1 profit 7.1 million dinars vs. 7.7 million dinars a year ago; Q1 revenue rises 1 percent to 321.8 million dinars

May 17, 2012 11:30 by Reuters

Kuwait’s Agility, the logistics firm facing U.S. fraud charges, reported an 8.1 percent drop in first-quarter profit as costs rose faster than revenue.

The firm made a profit of 7.1 million dinars ($25.44 million) in the three months to March 31, down from 7.7 million dinars in the prior-year period, it said in a bourse statement on Wednesday.

Total revenue for the quarter was 321.8 million dinars, up from 318.5 million dinars in the corresponding quarter of 2011, but this gain was outweighed by an increase in revenue costs, which rose 2.2 percent to 234.8 million dinars over the same period.

Agility, which was the largest supplier to the U.S. Army in the Middle East during the war in Iraq, pleaded not guilty in August to charges it defrauded the U.S. government over multi-billion-dollar supply contracts.

The company is barred from bidding for new U.S. government contracts pending the outcome of the cases.

($1 = 0.2791 Kuwaiti dinars) (Reporting by Matt Smith; Editing by Dinesh Nair)