ComfortDelGro profits dip 11.1% to $91.7m in Q3

Blame the decline in taxi revenues.

ComfortDelGro profits are down by 11.1% YoY to $91.7m in Q3 due to lower earnings from its taxi segment. Taxi earnings declined by 21% YoY due to increased competition from private-hire service providers.

Group revenue also declined 2.4% YoY to $991.4m as segments in automotive engineering services, car rental and leasing, bus station, inspection and testing services were badly hit.

The decline in revenue was partially offset by an earnings increase in public transport service and driving center business segments.

However, the transport company posted healthy growth in its rail segment business as the new Downtown Line (DTL) 3 has posted 66.67% growth YoY to 430k average daily ridership.

Last August, ComfortDelGro announced that it is in talks for potential collaboration with Uber. John Cheong of Maybank Research speculates that if the tie-up pushes through, ComfortDelGro can benefit largely from Uber’s platform which can offset its taxi weakness. 

Cheong adds that ComfortDelGro has a lot to gain from the tie-up as it also stands to benefit from Uber’s funding and tap into Uber’s technology.