Amreli Steels’ profit surges 29% to Rs329m

Earnings per share increases to Rs1.1 in the Oct-Dec 2017 quarter

KARACHI: Amreli Steels reported a net profit of Rs329 million for the quarter ended December 2017, up 29% compared with Rs256 million in the same quarter of the last fiscal year, according to a company notice sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

The result posted was above market expectations.

Earnings per share (EPS) jumped to Rs1.1 from an EPS of Rs0.9 in the period under review. This took the net profit of first six months to Rs524 million, up 9% compared with Rs482 million in the same period of last year. The KSE-100 index closed at 43,572, down 54 points or 0.12%. Amreli Steels’ share closed at Rs94, up 2.7%.



The steelmaker reported sales revenue of Rs3.5 billion, up 6% year-on-year or 30% quarter-on-quarter. This was due to the company running its rolling mill without any major shutdown during the outgoing quarter, according to a Topline Securities report. To recall in the first quarter of fiscal year 2018, the company had shut down its rolling mills for a period of two weeks.

Gross margins for the outgoing quarter clocked in at 18.5%, up 1.3 percentage points year-on-year. This was due to the steelmaker raising its product prices to fully pass on the impact of the recent rupee devaluation in outgoing quarter, the report added.



Effective taxation of the company clocked in at 6.5% compared with 22% reported last year due to the company booking tax credit for its new billet plant, which has started its commercial operations in the first quarter of fiscal year 2018.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2018.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.