Kuwait's Agility, the logistics firm facing US fraud charges, reported an 8.1 per cent drop in first-quarter profit as costs rose faster than revenue.     

The firm made a profit of 7.1 million dinars ($25.44 million) in the three months to March 31, down from 7.7 million dinars in the prior-year period, it said in a bourse statement on Wednesday.     

Total revenue for the quarter was 321.8 million dinars, up from 318.5 million dinars in the corresponding quarter of 2011, but this gain was outweighed by an increase in revenue costs, which rose 2.2 per cent to 234.8 million dinars over the same period.      

Agility, which was the largest supplier to the US Army in the Middle East during the war in Iraq, pleaded not guilty in August to charges it defrauded the US government over multi-billion-dollar supply contracts.        

The company is barred from bidding for new US government contracts pending the outcome of the cases. – Reuters