(Reuters) - India's Mahindra Logistics reported a fifth straight quarterly loss on Monday, hurt by subdued volume growth at its mainstay business of supply chain management.

Consolidated net loss for the logistics arm of Mahindra Group stood at 128.5 million rupees ($1.5 million) in the quarter ending March 31, compared with a loss of 8.2 million rupees a year ago.

The company declared a dividend on 2.5 rupees per share.

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KEY CONTEXT

Logistics companies expect to see a muted fourth quarter as activity slowed ahead of general elections in India.

Demand slowdown in key manufacturing sectors like auto and industrial goods directly impacts third-party logistics companies.

Mahindra Logistics, which makes more than 90% of its revenue from supply chain management, has 80% of this revenue flowing in from automobile segment.

While diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices declined 2% and 7%, respectively, year-on-year in the fourth quarter, this did not offset the impact of muted volumes.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 Estimates Analysts' sentiment

months) (next 12

months)

RIC PE EV/EBITDA Revenue Mean # of Stock to Div

growth rating* analysts price yield

target** (%)

Mahindra Logistics Ltd 72.33 10.15 14.75 Hold 10 1.17 0.55

VRL Logistics Ltd 26.91 11.34 14.86 Buy 9 0.76 0.90

Transport Corporation 16.98 12.99 12.79 Strong 4 0.84 0.82

of India Ltd Buy

Blue Dart Express Ltd 38.05 16.80 11.26 Hold 6 0.86 0.48

* Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** Ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

JANUARY-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 83.3650 Indian rupees

(Reporting by Anisha Ajith in Bengaluru)