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KARACHI: Three companies announced their results for the first quarter (July-September) of this financial year (1QFY15) on Friday.
D.G. Khan Cement: The company announced consolidated profit after tax (PAT) at Rs1.16bn, translating into earnings per share (eps) at Rs2.64. It represented a surge of 8pc over PAT of Rs1.07bn (eps: Rs2.44) in the same period last year.
Analyst Numair Ahmed at Arif Habib Limited said the results “remained slightly below our expectations as higher than expected cost of sales and lower average retention prices dragged the gross margins down to 31pc in 1QFY14 against 34pc in the same period last year”.
A 1.54-time year-on-year (YoY) increase in other income to Rs437m in 1QFY15 supported the bottom-line. Alongside the results, the board approved a 30MW pulverised coal-fired captive power plant at its factory in Khofli Sattai, Dera Ghazi Khan.
“The company has already installed a 10.4 MW Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) at its DG plant which we believe will lower its dependence on gas for its power generation,” the analyst said.
Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL): The board announced PAT of Rs13.69bn (eps: Rs6.94), a growth of 10pc YoY from Rs12.48bn (eps: Rs6.33) a year ago.
Investment analyst Asad I. Siddiqui at AKD Securities said: “The results beat street consensus by 3-4pc.” He thought the major propulsion factor behind the earnings increase was 11pc YoY revenue growth. This increase was underpinned by expected 35pc YoY increase in production coming in from Tal block, which was likely to have boosted company’s crude oil production by 22pc.
Key result highlights included lower effective tax rate at 30.4pc against 33.7pc during the same period of FY14, and operating margins shrinking by 4 points to 59.9pc due to 29pc YoY increase in field expenditure.
Indus Motor Company: The IMC reported profit-after-tax of Rs1.1 billion during the first quarter (July-Sept) of 2014-15, an increase of 28 per cent from Rs0.9bn of the corresponding period last year.
The company’s sales revenue from CKD, CBU and spare parts business grew by 21pc to Rs17.3bn compared to Rs14.3bn while the combined sales increased to 9,975 units against 8,537 units in the same period last year, an increase of 17pc.
The production of cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) for the quarter was up by 22pc to 9,998 units compared to 8,173 units of the corresponding period last year.
The reversal of 10pc Federal Excise Duty (FED) on Fortuner SUV, imposed in 2013, also increased the company’s combined market share from 26pc to 31pc.
IMC Chief Executive Officer Parvez Ghias said the profit was mainly on account of higher sales, increase in treasury income and tighter control on fixed costs.
“Strong demand for the new generation Corolla (launched in July 2014) also enabled the company to outperform the industry,” he added.
IMC chief revealed that the industry’s overall sale for passenger cars and LCVs declined by 3pc to 31,899 units compared to 32,841 units in same period last year, adding that: “The stagnant state of economy and imported used cars continue to hurt the industry.”
He further hoped the government would come up with a new growth oriented auto policy at its earliest to support the local industry.
Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2014
