The board of directors of Dawood Hercules Chemicals Limited has announced 15 percent interim divided for its shareholders for the year, ending December 31, 2006. The board, which met here on Friday, approved the unaudited accounts of the company for half year ended June 30, 2006, and declared the interim dividend.
According to the report of the board, the company showed improvement in its production and sales performance. During the period under review the company's sales amounted to Rs 1841 million as compared to Rs 1400 million of same period of the last year.
It's after tax profit, however, declined to Rs 1345 million from Rs 2051 million and earnings per share fell to Rs 16.23 from Rs 24.76.
The company produced 241,538 mt of urea as against 194,569 mt in the corresponding period of the last year. The current production performance depicted a capacity utilisation of 108 percent as against 87 percent of the corresponding period of the preceding year.
During the period under review, the company sold 209790 mt of urea depicting an improvement of 20 percent over the same period of the last year, which is the highest in the history of the company.
According the board report, the company has successfully completed first phase of BMR and has invested significantly in plant and machinery. To improve further plant efficiency and capacity, the company is expected to undertake the 2nd phase of BMR for which a board meeting will be scheduled shortly, the report added.
The company has undertaken a turnaround of plant from 24th July 2006, after 29 months of continuous operations which is a record for a plant in the fertiliser industry of Pakistan, the report claimed.