PETALING JAYA: MBSB Research expects Swift Haulage Bhd
’s earnings momentum to remain positive for the remainder of financial year 2026 (FY26), underpinned by seasonally stronger demand, further transport rate adjustments, improving warehouse utilisation and sustained project cargo activity.
The integrated logistics and container haulage company delivered better-than-expected results for the third quarter of FY26 (3Q26), supported by stronger contributions from its container haulage and freight forwarding businesses.
In a note to clients, the research house said the group’s core profit after tax and minority interest (Patami) came in at RM8mil in 3Q26, bringing nine-months FY26 core Patami to RM23.1mil.
“This came slightly above expectations at 80%, but was largely within consensus full-year estimates at 73%,” added MBSB Research.
However, the group’s total revenue declined by 2.9% year-on-year (y-o-y) mainly dragged down by warehousing and container depot (down 23.5% y-o-y) and land transportation (dropped 7.6% y-o-y).
According to MBSB Research, warehousing performance was likely affected by lower utilisation, which fell to a four-year low of 64% in 2Q26 due to customer exits and capacity transition, resulting in earnings before interest and taxes (Ebit) declining 52.4% y-o-y.
Meanwhile, land transportation was likely impacted by a higher mix of lower-yielding short-haul trips, leading to a 41.4% y-o-y drop in Ebit.
On the positive side, container haulage revenue grew 6.8% y-o-y, while Ebit jumped 65.1% y-o-y, with better margins likely supported by rate revisions.
Similarly, freight forwarding revenue rose 10.8% y-o-y, while Ebit increased 27.2% y-o-y, likely driven by continued strong project cargo demand.
Overall, core Patami grew 58% y-o-y.
Sequential revenue weakness was confined to land transportation.
Compared to 2Q26, total revenue edged down 0.4% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q), mainly dragged down by land transportation, which saw revenue declined 7.6% q-o-q and Ebit fell more sharply by 72.8% q-o-q, offsetting improvements across all other segments.
Encouragingly, MBSB Research said warehousing and container depot revenue grew 5.7% q-o-q , while Ebit rose 1.4% q-o-q, potentially signalling a recovery in warehouse utilisation.
“Overall, core patami increased 6.5% q-o-q,” MBSB Research noted.
The research house, which maintained a “neutral” call on Swift Haulage at an unchanged target price of 35 sen, said: “We maintain our earnings forecasts unchanged ahead of the results briefing.”
