The Board of Directors of ICI Pakistan Limited at their meeting on Wednesday announced an excellent financial result for the year ended 31 December 2006.
The company crossed the Rs 2.0 billion mark (excluding the one off profit on sale of PPTA shares in 2004) in operating result and profit before taxation, for the first time in the company's history.
The company achieved operating result of Rs 2,481.0 million and profit before taxation of Rs 2,117.8 million, which was 35 percent and 31 percent higher than 2005 respectively.
Commenting on the success of the company despite difficult trading conditions over the last few years, Finance Director of ICI Pakistan Feroz Rizvi said, "ICI Pakistan has achieved 22 percent growth in gross profit over 2005 on the back of volume growth, the introduction of new products, better product mix, improved raw material efficiencies, significant reduction in energy usage and a strong focus on cost reduction. Although profit after tax was below last year, this was due to the impact of a partial write off of deferred tax asset recorded in earlier years due to the availability of tax losses."
Overall, the operating results of various ICI business segments improved as compared to 2005, with increases of 42 percent in Polyester, 8 percent in Soda Ash, 63 percent in Paints, 39 percent in Life Sciences, and an improvement of 18 percent in the General Chemicals and Specialty Products segment. The earning per share for ICI Pakistan, excluding the impact of deferred tax, increased by 31 percent, from Rs 11.6 per share to Rs 15.2 per share. The company declared a final dividend of Rs 3.00 per share. -PR