Analysis: a revenue record that has not yet reset the margin

The number that will decide how this quarter is read is not AED 1.83 billion. It is 21.4%. Aramex grew revenue 22% while gross profit grew 19%, and the gap shows up as 60 basis points of gross margin compared with the second quarter of 2025. The company names Freight Forwarding as the source of the revenue record, and freight forwarding is structurally the thinnest-margin of the four products because a large share of the invoice is bought capacity passed through to the customer. A mix shift toward that product raises revenue and dilutes percentage margin at the same time. The disclosure is consistent with that mechanism, but it does not prove it, because no product-level revenue or gross profit is published.

What the release does establish is operating leverage below the gross line. Gross profit moved from AED 329,265 thousand to AED 391,782 thousand in the quarter while EBIT moved from AED 16,129 thousand to AED 87,131 thousand, so the reported EBIT gain is larger in absolute dirhams than the gross profit gain that funded it. Costs sitting between the two lines therefore fell rather than merely growing more slowly. That is where Accelerate28 and the cost discipline the company describes would appear, and it is the more durable part of the result. On the normalized base the same movement is a rise from AED 31,940 thousand to AED 87,131 thousand, which is smaller but still faster than revenue.

The normalized comparison has to be read against the reported one. The restatement applies to 2025 for costs the company says it had already disclosed, and Aramex states that no adjustment touches 2026. Its arithmetic effect is to reduce two reported movements, a loss becoming a profit and EBIT rising 440%, to smaller percentages. The release carries the reported and normalized columns side by side, and the growth rates quoted in the headline are the normalized pair.

Leverage is the open question. Debt to EBITDA of 2.7x including IFRS 16 is stated for 30 June 2026 without a comparable figure for the prior period in this release, so the direction of travel is not visible here. A cash balance of AED 503 million against a half year net profit of AED 64,391 thousand also says nothing on its own about free cash generation, since no cash flow statement accompanies the announcement. The next things worth reading are the interim condensed financial statements for the same period, which carry the segment note and the cash flow that this release omits, and the third quarter release, which will show whether the record monthly revenues of May and June were a response to rerouted regional trade or the new run rate.

What the documents say

Aramex PJSC (DFM: ARMX) told the Dubai Financial Market on 5 August 2026 that group revenue reached AED 1.83 billion in the second quarter of 2026, the largest quarterly revenue figure in the company’s history. The disclosure covers the three months and the six months ending 30 June 2026, and it pairs the revenue record with a profit line that moved from a loss a year earlier to a positive result.

What the quarter delivered

Revenue of AED 1,830,329 thousand compares with AED 1,497,690 thousand in the second quarter of 2025, a rise of 22%. First half revenue of AED 3,430,166 thousand was 12% above the AED 3,060,707 thousand recorded in the first six months of 2025. The company said May and June each set monthly revenue records, which places most of the half year’s acceleration in the closing two months rather than spread evenly across the period.

Freight Forwarding produced the highest quarterly revenue in Aramex’s history, according to the release, which attributed the result to customer demand, pricing discipline and a diversified multimodal offering. Domestic Express continued to grow. International Express shipment volumes were described as broadly stable, which the company presented as stabilisation after declines in earlier periods. Aramex did not publish revenue by product line in the announcement, so the relative weight of each of its four products in the AED 1.83 billion total is not disclosed.

Margins moved in two directions

Gross profit rose 19% to AED 391,782 thousand in the quarter, from AED 329,265 thousand. The first half figure of AED 734,278 thousand was 6% higher than AED 693,940 thousand a year earlier. Gross profit margin was 21.4% for both the quarter and the half, against 22.0% in the second quarter of 2025 and 22.7% in the first half of that year. Revenue therefore grew faster than gross profit, and the company tied the narrower percentage to the evolution of its product mix together with cost management.

Below the gross line the direction reverses. Reported EBIT of AED 87,131 thousand was 440% above the AED 16,129 thousand of the second quarter of 2025, lifting the EBIT margin from 1.1% to 4.8%. Reported net profit of AED 47,387 thousand followed a loss of AED 9,269 thousand in the comparable quarter. For the half, EBIT of AED 139,089 thousand was 81% above AED 77,034 thousand, and net profit of AED 64,391 thousand compares with AED 7,854 thousand. EBITDA rose 73% to AED 181,257 thousand in the quarter and 29% to AED 324,362 thousand in the half.

The normalized base

Aramex quoted growth rates in the release that are smaller than the reported arithmetic produces, because the comparison base is a normalized 2025. Normalized second quarter 2025 EBIT was AED 31,940 thousand rather than AED 16,129 thousand, so the growth quoted in the release is 173% rather than 440%. Normalized second quarter 2025 net profit was AED 5,922 thousand rather than a loss, which converts a turnaround into a 700% increase. On the same basis, first half EBIT growth is 46% rather than 81%, with the margin moving from 3.1% to 4.1%, and first half net profit of AED 64,391 thousand sits against a normalized AED 33,383 thousand rather than AED 7,854 thousand, a 93% rise rather than 720%.

The company states that the adjustments apply to 2025 only, reflect one-off costs previously disclosed and explained in its 2025 quarterly and full-year releases, and that no normalisations have been applied to 2026 figures.

Cash, leverage and the transformation programme

Aramex reported a cash balance of AED 503 million and a debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.7x including IFRS 16 as at 30 June 2026. It credited its Accelerate28 transformation programme, alongside disciplined management of operating costs and overheads, for the profitability improvement, without quantifying the programme’s separate contribution.

Operationally, the company said it activated alternative routes across its Middle East gateway network during a period of regional disruption, including Europe to Middle East land solutions and expanded air and sea project charter operations, and that proactive commercial measures mitigated the impact of higher fuel prices across several markets. Aramex was founded in 1982, has been listed on the Dubai Financial Market since 2005, and reports operations in more than 600 cities across 70 countries with over 16,000 employees. Group Chief Executive Officer Amadou Diallo linked the result to the company’s execution framework.

The market Aramex is trading into

The domestic backdrop is unusually supportive for a logistics operator. The World Bank’s Gulf Economic Update published in December 2025 records UAE growth of 3.9 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2025, with non-oil activities up 5.3 percent while oil activities contracted by 0.6 percent, and non-oil sectors reaching 75.5 percent of real GDP in 2024. The same report projects average real growth of 5 percent for 2026 and 2027, driven by 5.2 percent growth in non-oil activities. The World Bank’s October 2025 regional update puts UAE growth at 4.8 percent for 2025, 0.9 percentage points faster than 2024, and names transport among the sectors making notable contributions.