Logista: Still Truckin'

“Looking ahead to the remainder of fiscal year 2026, we reiterate our guidance and expect adjusted EBIT, excluding profit on inventory to grow at a mid-single-digit rate. This growth will be supported by continued strength of our core businesses and disciplined cost management.” - Pedro Agustín Losada Hernández, Logista H1’26 remarks

Logista’s H1’26 headline figures show revenues up, yet economic sales, adjusted EBIT, and net profit all lower. Naturally, there is a bit more to it than that. Transport remains a central focus. Alongside the challenges cited in Q1, geopolitical uncertainty and rising fuel prices have applied further pressure. Headway has been made, with efforts to improve El Mosca evident in year-over-year margin improvements in Q2, as in Q1, courtesy of cost and customer rationalization, partly offset by Carbó’s restructuring.

While transport remains challenged, pharmaceutical distribution remains the clear standout in terms of structural growth. Economic Sales has maintained high single-digit growth, underpinned by expanded offerings to existing customers and a steady pace of new relationships. With an increase in pharma sites and a new logistics hub, the company appears well-positioned to expand into other select parts of Europe. Although Transports requires the near-term focus, pharma continues to be a prime hunting ground for bolt-on acquisitions, supported by a response given by Pedro Agustín Losada Hernández during the Q&A:

Yes. Well, we work a lot to execute our strategic inorganic growth plan. We are working in several opportunities as we have done in the past. So the point is that in this particular sector, there are plenty of opportunities all around our geographies and subsectors of the logistics, and we have plenty of opportunities to analyze.

At this point, we look at opportunities in sectors like pharma, like temperature control. As we mentioned several times, maybe if we have the chance to go for opportunities on the tobacco business, we analyze also as well. But we keep on analyzing the appropriate one that provides the levels of return that Logista is aiming to reach in each of the M&A opportunities that we have on the table and having the synergies that we are expecting in each of the transactions. But probably it’s difficult to see in this fiscal year.

Like pharma, courier services continued to prove strong. High single-digit growth and a gradual branching into the Netherlands show an unwillingness to sit idle. Further expansion in the Netherlands’ TRP business demonstrates the same. Although each of these is a relatively small contributor to the overall business, their paths forward appear far straighter and less turbulent.