PPL profits decline on higher field expenditures

KARACHI: Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has announced a net profit of Rs7.808 billion, translating in the earnings per share (EPS) of Rs3.96 for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, a company statement said on Friday.
The company had posted a profit of Rs10.576 billion and EPS of Rs5.36 in the same quarter last year.
The sales revenue for the quarter under review stood at Rs23.039 billion as against Rs30.764 billion in the corresponding quarter last year, it said.
Shahbaz Ashraf at Arif Habib Limited said the decline in profitability was due to higher filed expenditures and lower oil prices, resulting in net revenues to decrease by 15.4 percent. In addition, the effective taxation for the quarter stood at 26 percent as compared to 37 percent in the previous quarter.
“During the quarter, the company posted net sales of Rs22.704 billion, a decline of 15.4 percent attributable to 31 percent lower oil prices, despite oil production recording an uptick of one percent, whereas gas production remained flat.”
“Field expenditures increased to Rs11.007 billion, a rise of 26.1 percent. The field expenditures were higher than the market expectations, which aided the company to book earnings lower-than-expectation earnings.”
For the nine-month period ended March 31, 2015, PPL posted a net profit of Rs30.454 billion as against the profit of Rs37.193 billion in the same period last year.

Pak Suzuki Q1 profit up 113pc
The Pak Suzuki Motor Company (PSMC) on Friday reported net profit of Rs946 million [earning per share (EPS) Rs11.50] during the first quarter of 2015, compared to Rs443 million [EPS Rs5.4] the same period last fiscal, showing a surge of 113 percent.
The significant increase in earnings is primarily due to higher volume sales, up 55 percent year on year and four percent increase in gross margin.
Revenue of the company posted a growth of 43 percent YoY to Rs19.6bn, while the gross profit surged by 125percent to Rs2.2bn in 1Q2015.
The taxi scheme boosted volumetric sales — mainly Bolan and Ravi. A total of 30,950 units were sold at a discount to the government of Punjab.
“Similarly, gross margins improved 11 percent due to reduction in steel price and 18 percent devaluation of Japanese Yen against Pak rupee,” said Farhan Mehmood, Head of Research at Sherman Securities.
Sources said the company plans to bring a new model under 1,000cc category by the beginning of 2016 and will gradually phase out the production of Cultus. However, the company’s spokesman Shafiq Ahmed Shaikh, said phasing out of Cultus is not on the cards.

Nishat Mills earns profit of Rs2.105 billion
Nishat Mills Limited has announced a net profit of Rs2.105 billion, translating in the earnings per share (EPS) of Rs5.13 for the quarter ended March 31, 2015.
The company had posted a profit of Rs1.951 billion and EPS of Rs4.42 in the same quarter last year.
The sales revenue for the quarter under review stood at Rs18.517 billion as against Rs21.844 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.
For the nine-month period ended March 31, 2015, NML posted a net profit of Rs6.461 billion and EPS of Rs14.87 as compared to the profit of Rs6.993 billion and EPS of Rs16.9 in the same period last year.

Pak Elektron posts Rs732.611mln profit
Pak Elektron Limited has announced a net profit of Rs732.611 million, translating in the earnings per share (EPS) of Rs1.81 for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, a company statement said on Friday.
The company had posted a profit of Rs253.375 million and EPS of Rs0.61 in the same quarter last year.
The sales revenue for the quarter under review stood at Rs5.868 billion as against Rs5.053 billion in the corresponding quarter last year, it said.
The company did not announce any payouts along with the corporate earnings.

Engro Fertilizer’s profits surge
Engro Fertilizer has announced a net profit of Rs3.058 billion, translating in the earnings per share (EPS) of Rs2.30 for the quarter ended March 31, 2015.
The company had posted a profit of Rs1.437 billion and EPS of Rs1.12 in the same quarter last year.
The sales revenue for the quarter under review stood at Rs17.673 billion as against Rs14.895 billion in the corresponding quarter last year.
Tahir Abbas at Arif Habib Limited said the company’s sales grew 19 percent, mainly due to four percent jump in urea prices, which offset the impact of one percent decline in the urea offtake.
Gross margins remained flat at 38 percent, highlighting the company did not receive concessionary gas flow at $0.7/mmbtu.
Other income jumped by massive 59 percent amid higher cash and cash equivalents during the period. Financial charges dropped 11 percent due to lower interest rates coupled with early debt retirement, as the company had paid Rs10 billion as a prepayment to its creditors in 2014. The company did not announce any payouts along with the corporate earnings.

Bank Alfalah reports Rs1.9 billion earnings
The profit-after-tax of Bank Alfalah rose to Rs1.982 billion in the first quarter (January-March) of 2015 as against Rs1.128 billion during the same quarter last year.
The bank’s total assets stood at Rs742.1 billion.
During the quarter, the net interest income increased by 59 percent from the corresponding three-month period of previous year.
The overall net revenue earned by the bank amounted to Rs8.958 billion, registering an increase of Rs2.615 billion or a 41 percent increase over the corresponding period last year.
The bank’s cost to income ratio significantly improved to 58.3 percent as against 71.1 percent in the quarter under review. The nonperforming loans fell to Rs18.687 billion in January-March 2015 as compared to Rs19.412 billion during December last year.
The net investment portfolio of the bank stood at Rs336.189 billion.
“The bank’s performance indicates strong growth in profitability backed by core revenue growth. Despite the challenging environment that we operate in, Bank Alfalah continues to focus on diversifying its revenue streams to ensure maximum returns to all our stakeholders,” Atif Bajwa, President and CEO of Bank Alfalah, said.
The bank continues to hold investments in medium- to long-term government bonds, which have led to a stable earnings stream.