PSO half-year profits rise 49 percent

KARACHI: Pakistan State Oil (PSO) has announced net profits of Rs10.015 billion for the half-year ended December 31, 2016, up 48.9 percent as compared to the profits of Rs6.725 billion earned during the same period of the last year, a bourse filing said on Monday.

The earnings per share (EPS) for the period clocked in at Rs36.86 as compared to the EPS of Rs24.76 announced last year. However, the company did not announce any payouts along with the corporate announcement.  “While the profitability of the company remained strong and in line with our expectations, the company failed to announce the anticipated interim cash dividend, amid cash crunch it is facing due to rising circular debt,” Waleed Rehmani said in a report issued by Arif Habib Limited.  PSO recorded net sales of Rs411.337 billion for the first half of the current fiscal year, up 16.2 percent against the net of sales of Rs353.953 billion during the same period of the last year.  For the quarter ended December 31, 2016, the net sales of the company clocked in at Rs276.4 billion, leading to the net profits of Rs5.639 billion and the EPS of Rs20.75.

The growth in the company’s topline can be primarily attributable to strong HSD sales in the quarter. Though volumes of furnace oil declined, uptrend in the product price somewhat neutralised the effect of volumetric declines.