KARACHI, Sept 29: As dense despondency settled over the Karachi Stock Exchange, where on Monday, only 24 shares changed values with the volume of trade at life-time low of 1.7 million shares, corporates queued up to announce their financial results in order to meet the regulatory deadlines.

As many as 80 companies announced their financial figures, relating to varying periods. Included among them were the “Sui twins,” the performance of which for the year ended June 30, 2008, could be of interest to investors.

Both Sui Southern Gas Company Limited and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) were seen to have benefited tremendously from a sharp drop in “gas development surcharge.”

The SSGC posted a profit for the year ended June 30, 2008, amounting to Rs991 million, translating into earning per share (eps) at Rs1.48. That represented a giant leap in profitability by 242 per cent from Rs290 million or eps at Re 0.43, the previous year. The company charged Rs0.341 million on account of “gas development surcharge” (GDS), which was a pittance compared to GDS at Rs7.2 million that had eaten into its profitability last year. Other than that, ‘cost of gas’ showed a steep rise to Rs69 million, from Rs63 million the earlier year. Sales after deduction of sales tax almost stayed put at Rs76 million for both the years. Gross profit increased to Rs7.4 million, from Rs5.9 million, while transmission, distribution, selling costs; administrative expenses and other expenses together increased to Rs8.1 million, from Rs6.7 million. The company earned more than a million more in “other operating income,” which amounted to Rs3.7 million for the year under review and Rs2.6 million the previous year. The SSGC board recommended final cash dividend at Rs1.25 (12.5 per cent) for the year.

The Sui Northern Gas Pipelines earned “differential margin” of Rs0.750 for the year ended June 30, 2008. The previous year, company had to pay a huge amount of Rs9.5 million in respect of “gas development surcharge”. The beneficial impact, however, did not travel down to the bottom-line as the company’s “cost of goods sold” rose by almost an equal amount to Rs108.1 million, from Rs99.2 million last year.

Profit-after-tax of SNGPL stood at Rs2.5 million for the year under review, representing eps at Rs4.55, which compared with PAT amounting to Rs2.7 million, translating into eps at Rs4.88, the year earlier. Gas sales, before adjustment of differential margin/GDS amounted to Rs123 million for FY08 and Rs122 million for the year before.

Shareholders would have to await the management report and detailed accounts to know the reasons for huge increase in cost of sales and more importantly to see how the companies worked out the sizeable cut in “gas development surcharge”.