Kuwait's Agility, the logistics firm facing US fraud charges, posted a fourth-quarter net loss of 24.5 million dinars ($88.3 million), missing forecasts.

The loss in the three months to December 31 compared to a KD40.9 million profit in the year-earlier period, Agility said in a statement on Saturday.

Analysts had estimated an average net profit of 13.3 million dinars in a Reuters survey.

Full-year net profit came in at 25.1 million dinars, down from 156.4 million dinars in 2009, the statement said.

Fourth-quarter revenue fell 21.7 per cent to KD369 million from a year earlier because of a decline in government and defence business, it said. The board proposed a 40 per cent cash dividend, or 40 fils per share.

A US court ruling against Agility has dealt a blow to the company's fight against charges it defrauded the U.S. Army in multibillion-dollar contracts.

Agility, formerly Public Warehousing Company, was the largest supplier to the US Army in the Middle East during the war in Iraq and the case is politically sensitive in both Washington and Kuwait.

The court said prosecutors correctly served Agility with an indictment in 2009 when it accused the company of overcharging the Army over 41 months on $8.5 billion in supply contracts first signed at the start of the Gulf War in 2003.

Agility's share has tumbled nearly 27 per cent this year after losing 8.8 per cent in 2010.-Reuters