PPL’s profit falls to Rs17.424mln in FY16

KARACHI: Annual profit of Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) sharply fell 55 percent to Rs17.424 million for the year ended June 30, 2016, translating into earnings per share (EPS) of Rs8.74, a brokerage reported on Wednesday.

PPL earned profit of Rs38.398 billion for the preceding fiscal year, translating into an EPS of Rs19.47. The company declared a final cash dividend of Rs3.5/share for FY16, which is in addition to interim dividend of Rs2.25/share already paid to the shareholders.

“Earnings fell short of expectations mainly on the back of higher than anticipated effective tax rate and field expenses,” analyst Nabeel Khursheed at Topline Securities said. “One of the reasons for higher effective tax rate was imposition of three percent super tax, while higher field expenses were on account of dry well costs.”

PPL’s net sales decreased 23 percent to Rs80.151 billion in 2015/16.  Khursheed attributed the fall in net sales to 30 percent decrease in oil prices of the benchmark Arab light crude during the period.