KARACHI: Maple Leaf Cement (MLCF) announced 1QFY15 earnings on Wednesday posting profit-after-tax (PAT) at Rs545m, translating into earnings per share (eps) at Rs1.03.

The earnings turned out to be 2pc lower than the PAT at Rs556m and eps at Rs1.05 in the same quarter last year. The earnings for the quarter were below analysts’ consensus expectations, which were reflected in the stock price on Wednesday. With the highest volume for the day at 29m shares traded, MLCF stock closed lower by 20 paisa at Rs29.01.

Sajjad Hussain at brokerage BMA Capital Management said that the results were below expectation ‘on account of higher than estimated effective tax rate (recorded at 31pc in 1QFY15)’.

Sales for 1QFY15 depicted growth of 6.2pc YoY to Rs4.5bn from Rs4.2 in 1QFY14 on the back of 9pc YoY growth in dispatches.

“Volumetric sales stood at 0.6m tonnes compared to 0.5m tonnes in 1QFY14,” noted Vahaj Ahmed at Topline Securities. He stated that in spite of increase in profit before tax by 38pc to Rs789m, imposition of alternate corporate tax resulted in 2pc decline in net earnings.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014