Mari Petroleum’s earnings drop 8% to Rs1.69b

EPS in Jan-Mar decreases to Rs15.37 from Rs16.66 in corresponding quarter last year

KARACHI: Mari Petroleum Company Limited’s profit dropped 8% to Rs1.69 billion in the quarter ended March 31, as increased expenses and tax-on-profit ate up part of the earnings, according to a bourse filing Tuesday.

The company booked a profit of Rs1.83 billion in the same quarter of the previous year. Earnings per share (EPS) decreased to Rs15.37 from Rs16.66 in the corresponding quarter.

Mari’s share price fell 1.22%, or Rs19.57, to Rs1,580.13 with 173,940 shares turnover.

The company’s gross sales remained stagnant at Rs24.31 billion, according to the company’s profit and loss accounts with PSX.

Net sales (excluding taxes) rose 17% to Rs6.80 billion from Rs5.81 billion.

The gain in the net sales failed to trickle down to the bottom-line, as uptick in operating expenses and emergence of other expenses utilised it.

The operating expenses increased 12% to Rs1.61 billion from Rs1.43 billion. The company booked other expenses at Rs301.97 million against other income at Rs325.04 million in the same quarter of previous year.

The company paid tax-on-profit at Rs357.84 million as compared to refund of the tax at Rs81.93 million in the corresponding quarter.

Altogether in the nine-month ended March 31, the oil and gas exploration and production company earned Rs6.30 billion (EPS at Rs57.21), which was 62% higher than Rs3.89 billion (EPS at Rs35.29) in the corresponding period.

The profit soared with significant support from increased (29% to Rs19.86 billion) net sales and halved (50% to Rs2.56 billion) exploration and prospecting expenditure.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 26^th, 2017.

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