Friday, October 22, 2010

PAKISTAN: Lucky Cement profits down 34pc; FFBL earnings up 62pc

 Lucky Cement announced its first quarter results on Thursday, booking profits of Rs 727 million (EPS of Rs2.25) versus Rs 1.1 billion (EPS of Rs3.41) in first quarter of the fiscal year 2010 - a decline of 34 percent. 
The top line of the company showed a decline of 8 percent annually, primarily because lower dispatches during the year. Local cement dispatches of the company increased by 2.4 percent to 678k tons while exports sales fell to 713k tons, down 18.1 percent annually. Hence, total dispatches stood at 1.4 million tons, down 9.2 percent annually. Moreover, higher coal prices resulted in gross margin falling to 31% from 37% last year. 



Meanwhile, Fauji Fertilizer Bin Qasim (FFBL) announced its 9M2010 result on Thursday, posting earnings of Rs 2.9 billion (EPS: Rs3.14) versus earnings of Rs 1.8 billion (EPS: Rs1.93), an increase of 62 percent annually. In third quarter alone, the company posted earnings of Rs 1.2 billion (EPS: Rs1.29) against profits of Rs 1.3 billion (EPS: Rs1.4). 



Although the topline declined by 18 percent annually due to lower offtake during the year, however, higher prices of both urea and DAP pushed the margins up by 6ppt to 30% in 9M2010. Moreover, lower finance cost of Rs720mn (down 39%YoY) and profits of Rs129mn from its JV augmented the bottom line of the company. 

The company also announced a third interim cash dividend of Rs1.25 per share taking the cumulative dividend for the year to Rs3.05 per share.

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