KARACHI: Nearly 45 listed companies announced their financial figures on Monday for the quarter and half year ended Dec 31, 2014, which included Fazal Textile; Pioneer Cement; Gadoon Textile; Millat Tractors; JS Investments; Habib Insurance; Atlas Battery; Murree Brewery; National Foods; Lucky Cement and Indus Motors.

LUCKY CEMENT LIMITED: The company announced profit-after-tax (PAT) at Rs5.60 billion for the half year ended Dec 31, 2014 (on a standalone basis) representing a growth of 8.54 per cent over the PAT at Rs5.16bn in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The earnings per share (eps) worked out at Rs17.32 against an eps of Rs15.96 YoY.

Net sales revenue rose by 9.37pc to Rs21.41bn against Rs19.57bn.

The local sales volume registered a growth of 9.20pc to 2.02 million tonnes as compared to 1.85m tonnes in the same period last year, while export sales volume grew around 2pc to 1.23m tonnes as compared to 1.21m tonnes YoY.

A press release stated that the company maintained its market share at 19pc.

During the period, the combined sales revenue increased by 9.37pc which was mainly contributed by increase in volumes.

The company reported progress on its investments and ongoing projects including the fully integrated cement manufacturing plant in Congo; the grinding unit in Iraq; a 660MW, supercritical, coal-based power project; the Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) plants at Captive power plants; the vertical grinding mills at Karachi plant and 50MW wind farm.

Analyst Nabeel Khursheed at Topline Securities commented that Lucky Cement announced 1HFY15 (consolidated) earnings of Rs6.2bn (eps Rs19.39) as against Rs5.4bn (eps Rs16.80) in the same period last year, up 15pc YoY.

The growth was attributed to earnings from company’s subsidiary, ICI Pakistan, and its joint venture operations of cement grinding mill in Iraq.

“Moreover, with 87pc capacity utilisation in 1HFY15, operations from Iraq contributed net earnings of Rs323m (eps Re1) to Lucky’s consolidated bottom-line,” analyst said.

INDUS MOTOR COMPANY LIMITED: IMC announced PAT at Rs3.1bn during the first half (July-Dec) of 2014-15 as compared to Rs1.4bn in the same period last year.

IMC’s board declared an interim dividend of Rs20 per share compared to Rs6 per share a year ago.

Its sales revenue jumped by 50pc to Rs39.1bn from Rs26.1bn, due to higher sales volume, increase in treasury income and tighter control on fixed costs, says a press release.

During the period, IMC’s sales increased by 50pc to 23,081 units from 15,400 units sold in the same period last year.

Published in Dawn February 24th , 2015

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