XPO Logistics Trims Quarterly Losses

XPO Logistics released financial numbers on Wednesday showing it had a net loss of $9.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2014, compared with a net loss of $10.6 million for the same period in 2013. However, its full-year losses widen compared to the year before.

The net loss per diluted share was 77 cents compared to 37 cents a year earlier for the Connecticut-based provider of various freight transportation services.

For the fourth quarter of 2014, total revenue increased 223% year-over-year to $830.7 million.

“The fourth quarter was our strongest performance yet, with higher-than-expected earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $42 million,” said Bradley Jacobs, chairman and CEO. “We built broad-based momentum across our operations [with] company-wide organic growth of 39%, significant strength in our truck brokerage and contract logistics businesses, and a sales force focused on cross-selling our capabilities in the fastest-growing areas of logistics.”

The company's transportation segment, which includes truck brokerage, intermodal, last mile, expedited and freight forwarding, generated total gross revenue of $664.2 million for the quarter, a 158.2% increase from the same period in 2013. The year-over-year increase in revenue was primarily due to the acquisitions of Pacer and ACL, and 39% organic revenue growth, according to the company.

Fourth quarter operating income improved to $10.7 million, compared with $3.1 million a year ago. XPO said the increase in operating income was largely due to improved performance by its truck brokerage and expedited businesses, and by the acquisitions of Pacer and NLM.

The company’s logistics segment had net revenue of $166.5 million and operating income of $13.1 million, primarily driven by increased volume with retail customers, according to a release.

For all of 2014 the company reported total revenue of $2.4 billion, a 235.6% increase from 2013.

Net loss for the year was $63.6 million, compared with a net loss of $48.5 million for 2013, or a loss of $2.00 per diluted share, compared with a loss of $2.26 per diluted share for 2013.

For 2015 XPO provided an outlook of an annual revenue run rate of at least $5.25 billion, an annual EBITDA run rate of at least $300 million and at least $1.5 billion of acquired historical annual revenue for the full year.

It also reaffirmed its financial targets 2017 of revenue of approximately $9 billion and EBITDA of approximately $575 million.

Lastly, XPO announced the rebranding of the former UX Specialized Logistics operations as XPO Last Mile, following the previously-announced acquisition of UX on Feb. 9. The transaction added approximately 700 employees and contracted capacity of over 1,600 independent carriers and installers to XPO, as well as relationships with blue chip retailers and e-retailers, according to the company.