Highlight Petronas Dagangan 1Q net profit falls 34.6% y-o-y, declares 12 sen dividend

by **Cals** Wed 07 May 2014, 01:39

Highlight Petronas Dagangan 1Q net profit falls 34.6% y-o-y, declares 12 sen dividend

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Ho Wah Foon of theedgemalaysia.com

Tuesday, 06 May 2014 19:20

KUALA LUMPUR (May 6): Petronas Dagangan Bhd (PDB) said it posted a net profit of RM155 million for the first quarter to end-March 2014, down 34.6% from RM237 million netted a year ago.

Earnings per share fell to 15.6 sen from 23.9 sen for the same quarter in the previous year.

But it registered a higher revenue of RM8,293 million for the quarter, an increase of RM674 million over RM7,619 million achieved in the corresponding quarter last year.

The marketing company, which is 69.86%-owned by national oil company Petronas, declared a single-tier interim dividend of 12 sen per share.

“The higher revenue was mainly attributable to an increase in average selling price by 7% and an increase in sales volume by 1%,” said Petronas Dagangan in a press statement.

Describing the first quarter as having posed a “difficult operating environment”, PDB said its lower profit was due to lower gross profit resulting from Means of Platts Singapore (MOPS) price movements and higher operating expenditure.

The higher operating expenditure was attributable to an increase in manpower expenses, depreciation and amortisation, and transportation expenses.

Mohd Ibrahimnuddin Mohd Yunus, the managing director and chief executive officer, said: “It was a challenging first quarter for PDB. Despite increasing our sales volume…, MOPS price movements had impacted our group’s gross profit, resulting in a gross profit of RM522.8 million, a decrease of RM61.0 million as compared to a year ago.”

Shareholders’ fund as at 31 March 2014 was at RM4,769.2 million, a decrease by RM20.9 million.

Analysing its results by segments, PDB said for the quarter under review, retail business continued to grow via its extensive network of over 1,000 retail stations as sales volume increased by 3.6%.

But commercial business registered slightly lower sales volume of 2%.

LPG business further strengthened its position as Malaysia’s No.1 cooking gas through a 2% growth in its domestic sales volume.

Sustaining positive momentum was the lubricants business as its volume grew by 12%, on higher sales volume to its high street market and OEM customers.

On outlook, Petronas Dagangan said its directors “are of the opinion that the overall global economic and market outlook for 2014 remains challenging although there are signs of improvement in the major advanced economies.”

Continued uncertainties in geopolitics and supply demand fundamentals will continue to create fluctuations in international oil price which will impact petroleum product costing, it said.