STAFF REPORT ISB: Pakistan State Oil, the largest oil marketing company in the country, has registered a revenue growth of eight per cent year on year on the back of better volumetric sales and better product margins.
This has been mainly due to the increasing demand by the power sector and the ongoing CNG curtailment in the country, furnace oil sales and motor gasoline (petrol) volumes increased by eight to ten per cent coupled with inventory gains during the 1H FY14 supported the bottom line.
However, high speed diesel sales volumes remained unattractive for the firm and the industry in FY14 due to intense competition and cheaper Iranian diesel available in the market.
The bottom line was further lifted by a more than three times increase in other income which mainly consists of a rise in penal income on delayed payments and a decline in exchange losses, said an official of PSO.
He said that the damper on PSOs earnings was the finance cost, which crept up by 26 per cent, year on year due to the re-emergence of the circular debt, and hence excessive bank borrowings.
PSOs earning, however, continued to impress; along a 72 percent, year-on-year increase in profit after tax, the company also announce cash dividend of Rs4 per share.