Saudi Cement Q1 profit growth below competitors
Saudi Cement Company , Saudi Arabia’s largest cement maker, said first-quarter income rose 2.7 per cent on higher sales, though the growth in profit is one of the industry’s lowest.
Saudi Cement made a net profit of 173.3 million riyals ($46.2 million), or 1.7 riyals per share, in the three months to March 31, up from 169 million riyals, or 1.66 riyals per share, in the year-earlier period, it said in a statement on the Saudi bourse website.
Saudi Cement is both the industry’s largest by market value and by production which stood at 5.3Mt in 2007, according to its annual report. About 22 per cent of the firm’s production was exported in 2007.
In contrast, Yamamah Cement , the third-largest cement firm by market value and second-largest by production, made a first-quarter net profit of 197.5 million riyals, up 14 percent from the year-earlier period.
Saudi Cement’s operating profit rose 1.5 percent to 167.1 million riyals.
Its annual net profit growth in the first-quarter shows a slowdown compared to the fourth-quarter of 2007 when it was at 9 percent. Published under Cement News
