KARACHI: Pakistan State Oil (PSO), the country’s largest oil marketing company by revenue and market share, on Tuesday reported a 33 percent fall in its first-quarter net profit on sharp decline in sales.
PSO’s net profit for the quarter ended September 30 fell to Rs5.243 billion from Rs7.79 billion in the same period last year, the company said in a statement to the Karachi Stock Exchange.
The company reported earnings per share of Rs19.30 as compared to Rs28.70 in the same quarter last year. PSO did not announce any payout.
PSO’s net sales fell to Rs Rs290.43 billion against Rs306.686 billion in the corresponding period last year. Operating expenses of the company also reduced by 39 percent to Rs4.4 billion.
The company in a statement said profit-after-tax was 59 percent higher than the Rs3.3 billion budgeted for the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
“The budget was based on the fact that a bulk of interest income from the independent power producers (IPPs) received in the first quarter of last year is expected to be received in a steady stream on a sustainable basis during this year,” the company said.
“Therefore, net profit, including interest income from the IPPs had been lower than that during the same period last year … However, profit from operations (excluding IPPs interest income) was Rs9.11 billion, 39 percent higher than that of Rs6.55 billion during the same period last year,” it added.
The company said it had retained its market leadership in black oil and white oil, and successfully met the demand of fuel across the country despite the hardships and supply chain disruptions faced because of the power sector’s inability to pay for fuel in a timely manner.
The turnover of Rs355 billion during the quarter has been five percent lower than that of Rs364 billion (during the same period last year) largely due to the effects of the circular debt, floods and civil disturbance in certain areas on the vast retail network of PSO,” the company added.
The statement said the sales portfolio was managed by restraining fuel oil sales in view of the liquidity issues posed by the increasing power sector receivables and no discounts on the sale of HSD were given during the period under review.
Despite improvement in gross profit as percentage of sales, the bottom line of the company was negatively impacted upon by the burden of increased markup of Rs2.3 billion on account of the circular debt,” it said.
