(Reuters) -Polish parcel locker company InPost reported second-quarter adjusted earnings that met market expectations, but its shares fell on Tuesday as one analyst flagged slowing volume growth in its home market.
InPost, which operates across nine countries including Poland, is best known for its automated parcel machines or APMs that allow customers to collect or drop off packages when it suits them.
The company is focusing both on expanding abroad and defending its dominant position in Poland where competition is intensifying, including from its major customer Allegro.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were 999.5 million zlotys ($274.6 million) in the quarter, in line with the consensus estimate of 999 million zlotys cited by Jefferies.
Shares in InPost fell as much as 8% in early trading and were down 7% as of 1007 GMT.
Equity analyst Pawel Szpigiel from mBank said the market was likely reacting to the slower growth of volumes in Poland. They rose 6% in the second quarter, compared to 10% growth in the first three months of the year.
InPost expects Polish volumes to grow by a high single-digit percentage in the third quarter, continuing to outpace the broader e-commerce market. Poland is still its single biggest market, although it has been accelerating the roll-out abroad in recent years.
InPost’s founder and CEO Rafal Brzoska said in a statement that, for the first time, more than half of its revenue came from outside of Poland, while its international APM network also overtook that of its home market.
It plans to accelerate its APM deployment this year to around 15,000 across its markets, raising the target from more than 14,000.
Concerns over Allegro lowering its dependence on InPost for delivery have contributed to the company’s shares losing more than a quarter of their value so far this year.
InPost said in its quarterly filing that its Polish arm had filed an arbitration claim against Allegro’s local unit in July, seeking 98.7 million zlotys for breaching their long-term delivery agreement that is set to run out in 2027.
“As the management board, we have an absolute obligation to look after the interests of our shareholders,” Brzoska said in a media call, responding to a question on the claim.
An Allegro spokesperson said in an emailed comment that the company had received the order for payment from InPost but determined the claims to be “completely unfounded and unsupported by the existing agreement between the parties”.
($1 = 3.6405 zlotys)
(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham and Milla Nissi-Prussak)
