Power Cement’s earnings fall 24%

Company records Rs132m profit in Oct-Dec quarter

KARACHI: Power Cement, which is part of the Arif Habib Group, has posted an after-tax profit of Rs132 million in the second quarter ended December 31, 2016, down 24% from earnings of Rs174 million in the same period of previous year, according to a company notice sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday.

Earnings per share (EPS) fell to Rs0.36 in Oct-Dec of financial year 2016-17 compared to Rs0.47 in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Similarly, the company’s profit in the first six months (Jul-Dec) also dropped 20% to Rs242 million against Rs302 million in Jul-Dec FY16.

Power Cement’s share price came down to Rs17.75, down 5.3%. The benchmark KSE 100-share Index closed at 48,520, down 487 points or 0.99%.

Last month, the Arif Habib Group, which is one of the largest private-sector conglomerates in Pakistan, announced an investment of Rs25 billion (or $235 million) in a new cement plant that will be completed in the next two years.

Power Cement is one of the smallest companies with installed capacity of 0.9 million tons, a tiny fraction of over 45-million-ton installed capacity of the cement industry as a whole, according to the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association, a lobby group.

The company’s plant is in Nooriabad Industrial Estate, Dadu district, Sindh, which is about 95 kilometres northeast of Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2017.

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