Engro Fertilisers’ profit jumps 111% to Rs7b

Lower-than-expected effective tax rate lifts earnings

Engro Fertilisers’ profit jumped 111% to Rs7 billion in the quarter ended September 30, 2020.

According to a notice sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Wednesday, the company had reported a profit of Rs3.3 billion in the same period of last year.

Accordingly, earnings per share (EPS) of the company stood at Rs5.27 during the period under review against Rs2.49 in the same quarter of 2019. Alongside the result, the company also announced an interim cash dividend of Rs5 per share, taking the cumulative dividend in first nine months of 2020 to Rs9 per share.

“Earnings turned out to be higher than industry’s expectations due to lower-than-expected effective tax rate,” said Topline Research analyst Sunny Kumar.

Net sales of the company amounted to Rs37.4 billion in Jul-Sept 2020 compared to Rs27.1 billion in the same quarter of previous year.

“In the third quarter of 2020, net sales increased 38% year-on-year on the back of 35% increase in urea offtake and 90% rise in di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) consumption,” he said.

Consequently, total urea sales during the quarter came in at 616,000 tons while DAP sales were recorded at 183,000 tons, he said. Gross margins of the company declined by 3.6 percentage points year-on-year to 29%, which was in line with expectations, said Kumar.

Selling and distribution expenses rose 24% to Rs2.56 billion as opposed to Rs2.07 billion in the same quarter of last year. The expenses increased due to a hike in volumetric sales of urea and DAP.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2020.

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