PSO records Rs 14.7b earnings after tax

ISLAMABAD:-

                           Pakistan State Oil (PSO) posted record results for the financial year 2011 and announced an after tax earnings of Rs14.7 billion as compared to earnings after tax of Rs9.05 billion during the previous financial year. These results were declared after PSO’s Board of Management (BoM) convened on Tuesday at PSO House to review the company’s performance over the fiscal year 2010-11.Despite financial challenges posed by the ever increasing circular debt and the economic slow down, PSO maintained its position as the market leader with a market share of 78.2 per cent and 54.4 per cent in the Black Oil and White Oil segments respectively, thereby contributing to an overall market share of 65.6 per cent. PSO sold 12.6 million tons of POL products in FY11 with net sales revenue growing to Rs975 billion in comparisons to Rs877 billion in the previous year. The BoM declared a final cash dividend of Rs 2 per share in addition to the already paid interim dividends at Rs8 per share. Earnings per share also registered an improvement to Rs. 86.17 per share from Rs52.76 per share last year.While expressing their confidence in the strategic vision and managerial skills of the PSO management, the Board nevertheless expressed serious concern on the spiralling receivables which stood at Rs138.2 billion as of August 9, 2011. They observed that the financial costs associated with servicing this debt coupled with consistent delays in payment from the power sector continued to hurt the overall profitability of the company. The BoM also directed that efforts be made to reduce the impact of the burgeoning financial costs through constant pursuit for recovery of receivables from the power sector entities as well as from the Government of Pakistan.