PSO's After Tax Profits for Nine Months of FY13 Increase By 3.8%

The Board of Management of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) convened on Tuesday at PSO House to review the company's performance for the first nine months of FY13 from July, 2012 to March, 2013. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Ahsan Bashir and members in attendance were Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig. Mr. Mohammad Naeem Malik, Mr. Malik Naseem Hussain Lawbar, Mr. Raja Hameed Ahmed Saleem, Mr. Muhammad Azam and Mr. Naeem Y. Mir-CEO&MD, PSO.

In the period under review, PSO's revenues rose to Rs 930 billion as compared to Rs 862 billion in the corresponding period last year, representing a growth of 7.8 %. After tax earnings also witnessed significant improvement and increased to Rs. 9.31 billion in the period under review in comparison to Rs. 8.97 billion during the corresponding period last year representing an increase of 3.8 %.

During this time period, industry volumes for Black Oil remained stable while White Oil grew by 1% reflecting an increase in Mogas consumption of 16%. PSO's share of the MOGAS segment also grew to 50.9% in comparison to 49.6% while the HSD market share increased to 57.6% against 54.8% last year. Once again, your Company also continued to hold onto the lions share of the market with its share in the White Oil segment growing to 56.0% of the overall market while its share in the Black Oil segment stood at 74.7%, thereby contributing to a total market share of 64.3%.

Living up to its role as the nation's leading Public Sector Company; PSO has inaugurated the first of its kind Fortified Medical Center at PSO House. Also during this period, PSO formally inaugurated the first street under its unique CSR Street Program in Thatta, Sindh.

Recently, in April PSO has taken further steps along the path of becoming an integrated energy company and building a self-reliant energy chain by signing various strategic agreements. This has included signing a MoU with Engro PowerGen Limited (EPL) to review the technical and economical feasibility of the Thar coal project. Additionally a second MoU has been signed with the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (GoKP) for the establishment of a state-of-the-art oil refinery with a capacity of 40,000 barrels per day in District Kohat - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. PSO has also initiated a number of new and innovative marketing projects to project its image. With this in mind, the Company has inaugurated the first of its kind "Diesel Square" in Karachi and plans to replicate this project in multiple cities nationwide. Another first for PSO has been the inauguration of the world's first "Community Owned Station" in Gujrat which shall help bring about a social revolution at a grass roots level by distributing the station's profit amongst local area stakeholders.

At the meeting, the Board appreciated the Company management's efforts on behalf of the shareholders as well as the employees and the general public. At the same time, the Board expressed increasing concern over the balance of receivables, including price differential claims, which stood at over Rs 142.8 billion as on March 31, 2013. They observed that the financial costs of this debt coupled with the continuously increasing receivables from the power sector continued to hurt the overall profitability of the company and directed efforts to be made to reduce the impact of the burdening financial costs through constant pursuit for recovery of receivables from the power sector entities as well as from the Government of Pakistan. Keeping in view the financial constraints the Board did not approve any dividends for the period under review. The Company management thanked the members of the BoM for their direction and pledged to act on their instructions for the future benefit of the shareholders.