KARACHI: Pakistan Internat­ ional Airlines Corporation (PIA), the national flag carrier with Rs129 billion in total assets, posted loss of Rs10.1bn for the six months ended June 30, 2014 on its unconsolidated condensed interim profit and loss account.

Although deep in deficit, the loss decreased by 45pc from Rs18.4bn suffered in the corresponding six months of 2013. The airline turned out gross profit at Rs339m for the latest six months from loss of Rs2.6bn last year.

Yet, a deeper analysis shows that “exchange gain” of Rs5.2bn in six months 2014, in place of “exchange loss” of Rs1.5bn YoY, helped turn the results around. Against the paid-up capital of Rs28.8bn and reserves of Rs4.4bn, PIA carries accumulated loss amounting to Rs208bn on its balance sheet.

For quarter ended June 30, 2014, PIA showed loss of Rs8.1bn, down from loss of Rs9.8bn YoY, while revenue increased to Rs25.4bn, from Rs22.7bn. Exchange loss decreased to Rs370m for 2Q2014, from Rs463m same time last year.

However, the bottom-line for the 2Q2014 was bruised by sharp decline in ‘other income’ to Rs128m, from Rs1.2bn in same quarter 2013.

NML dividend

Nishat Mills Ltd (NML) announced FY14 unconsolidated earnings of Rs5.51bn, representing earnings per share (eps at 15.68).

The earnings were lower by 5.7pc over the PAT at Rs5.85bn and eps at Rs16.63 last year, the results were accompanied by final cash dividend of Rs4 per share, same as paid last year.

Sales grew by 3.8pc to Rs54.4bn from Rs52.4bn in FY13, while cost of sales rose by 7.4pc. “Thus, gross profit declined by 13.1pc to Rs7.86bn while gross margins declined by 281bps to 14.4pc in FY14 compared to 17.3pc last year,” analyst Muhammad Tahir Saeed at Topline Securities stated.

Other income of the company increased 33.4pc to Rs3.7bn in FY14 from Rs2.7bn last year. “During the year, dividend income of the company was estimated to have increased by 31pc to Rs2.9bn from its investment portfolio.

Currently, value of NML investment portfolio is estimated at Rs49.9bn (Rs142/share),” says analyst Saeed. On the other side, finance cost remained stable at Rs1.6bn.

Analyst Numair Ahmed at Arif Habib Limited commented that the FY14 results were slightly below expectations of eps at Rs15.78.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2014