Fujairah Cement reports Dh135.98m profit
For the nine months ended September 30, 2007, Fujairah Cement Industries (FCI) reported an 11.7 per cent increase in net profit to Dh135.98 million from Dh121.71 million in 9M06.
With demand for cement zooming, sales reached 1.66 million tonnes grossing sales revenue of Dh436.92m - an upsurge of 47.5 per cent. On the other hand, escalating raw material prices saw a 68.8 per cent jump in the cost of sales that touched Dh292.89 million as against Dh173.49 million in the year ago period, restricting gross profit to Dh144.03 million, a growth of 17.4 per cent from Dh122.68 million in 9M06.
For the period under review, FCI’s operating expenses jumped 30.1 per cent to Dh11.85 million from Dh9.11 million in the first nine months of 2006. Simultaneously, company’s finance charges soared 60 per cent to Dh1.86 million, while interest received & other income plunged 39.2 per cent to Dh5.65 million.
Consequently, its net profit margin dwindled to 31.1 per cent from 41.1 per cent in September 2006. As a result of moderate increase in profits, the company’s annualized return on equity and return on assets declined to 23.5 per cent and 18.2 per cent as compared to 24.7 per cent and 21.0 per cent, respectively. However, the company’s assets grew by 28.9 per cent to Dh996.72 million from Dh773.50 million and shareholders’ equity rose 17.3 per cent to Dh772.06 million from Dh658.26 million in the year ago period. Basic EPS as reported by the company stood at Dh0.48 as against Dh0.44 in September 2006.
Published under Cement News
