Maple Leaf Cement’s full-year profit drops 4.2 percent

Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited’s profit fell 4.2 percent to Rs4.572 billion with EPS of Rs7.92 for the year ended June 30. Maple Leaf Cement’s profit amounted to Rs4.776 billion with EPS of Rs8.81.

The company declared an interim dividend of Re1/share in addition to interim dividend of Rs1.50/share already paid.

Analyst Faraz Abbas at Taurus Securities said the company’s gross margins were unexpectedly down, but “the result exceeded our expectation due to tax reversals to the tune of Rs600 million, which we attribute to the reversals on deferred tax liability”. The effective tax rate for FY2018 clocked in at 17 percent as against 27 percent in the 9MFY18.

Finance cost, however, increased 4.8 percent to Rs847 million during the year, while sales accelerated to Rs25.684 billion from Rs23.885 billion.

Analyst Nabeel Khursheed at Topline Securities said price competition, unanticipated increase in gas and coal prices, and lower than estimated local demand pose key risks to the cement maker.

The company’s board approved one billion rupees of investment as loans/advances to Kohinoor Textile Mills Limited (KTML), a holding of the company, to meet the working capital requirements of KTML.

“A similar nature of reciprocal facility of loans/advances of one billion rupees for working capital requirements of the company would be recommended,” the company said in a statement to PSX.

PSX’s annual profit falls to Rs64.23mln

PSX’s profit sharply fell to Rs64.229 million for the year ended June 30 compared to Rs277.294 million during the last year.

EPS translated into Re0.08 FY2018 as against Re0.35 in FY2017.

PSX didn’t announce final cash dividend for the year ended June 30. However, an interim cash dividend at Re0.05/share was recommended and paid during the financial year.

The capital market’s revenue from listing fee, income from exchange operations, service charges, management fee, mark-up / interest income and rental income from investment property declined to Rs891.054 million in FY2018 from Rs1.064 billion in FY2017.

Operating cost marginally decreased to Rs1.118 billion from Rs1.122 billion.