Pakistan’s
largest oil marketing company, Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSO) has
disappointed its shareholders by not announce any interim dividend at the time
of release of its financial results for July-December 2016 period. This comes
as a shock as PSO has posted an EPS of Rs36.86 as compared to an EPS of Rs24.75
for the corresponding period of 2015. This raises apprehensions that the
Company suffers from serious liquidity crunch, circular debt being the most
notorious.
The
suspicion gets credence because PSO is the largest energy supplier to power
generation companies as well as the state owned enterprises. The other apprehend
is that if crude oil prices continue upward trend, it may yield substantial
inventory gains but maintaining high profitability would not be possible without asking the
government to raise POL prices substantially.
Net
sales of the company for the period under review increased to Rs411 billion
from Rs353 billion, posting an increase of 16 percent. Further impetus was provided
by 20 percent increase in Other Income and 21 percent reduction in financial
charges. As a result profit after tax for six months period increased by 49
percent to Rs10.015 billion, from Rs6.726 billion.
