KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunica­tion Company Ltd posted 1QCY20 standalone profit after tax at Rs1.21 billion and earnings per share at Rs0.24, down 39pc from PAT at Rs 2.01bn and EPS Rs0.39 in the same quarter last year.

The company said in a statement that the revenues and profits for the quarter had declined due to increase in operating costs.

“However, increase in non-operating income on account of disposal of obsolete assets and higher income on investments due to higher interest rates, has helped lessen the gap at the bottom-line level with comparative period.”

Other income of the company stood at Rs1.55bn, up from Rs1bn.

On a consolidated basis, PTCL’s group reported net loss of Rs406.7 million, down from PAT of Rs1.99bn in corresponding quarter of the previous year.

This was led by revenues falling by 5pc to Rs31.8bn during 1QCY20, from Rs33.5bn but the company stated that “when normalised for the impact of certain regulatory changes, the revenue was higher by 3pc over 1QCY19 on a like-for-like basis”.

JJVL to increase LPG production

Following a steep reduction of LPG availability owing to shutdown of some oil refineries, Jamshoro Joint Venture Ltd (JJVL) on Thursday announced to increase its production to meet the LPG requirements of over 500,000 homes which are not connected to the national gas grid.

The production is expected to increase to over 400 tonnes per day from the current over 300 tonnes per day at the plant located in Deh Shah Bokhari. The JJVL can process 325 mmscfd of gas per day.

JJVL chairman Iqbal Z. Ahmed has recently visited the plant to lay down the plans for the production and marketing of this ramped up supply.

K-Electric earns Rs17.3bn

K-Electric declared 2018-19 PAT at Rs17.274bn, jumping by 40.3pc over Rs12.312bn the year before. This translated into EPS of Rs0.63, up from Rs0.45.

The power company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amoritisation also fell to Rs31.24bn during the year under review, from Rs32.42bn in 2017-18.

Meanwhile, the cost of sales jumped to Rs238.41bn in 2018-19, surging 38.75pc over Rs171.83bn the year before, with consumption of fuel and oil accounting for the biggest portion.

Rs110m Covid-19 relief fund

JS Bank on Thursday announced a Rs110 million fund in association with key partners to help address the impact of coronavirus pandemic.

The fund will be utilised to provide immediate relief, ensure effective pandemic control and building future response capacity.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2020

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