Bestway Cement and Pakcem have posted a positive bottomline. Net turnover increased by 5.4 percent from Rs 28.9 billion to Rs 30.5 billion for Bestway, and 9.4 percent increase from Rs 5.11 billion from the corresponding period to Rs 5.58 billion by June 2015 for Pakcem.
Chief Executive Bestway Group Zameer Choudrey said, "We are happy to share our annual results for 2014-15 for Bestway Cement and six-month period for Pakcem, with growth in sales of 4.18 percent for Bestway and 11.5 percent for Pakcem." He said "This was a transformative year for us, with multiple major initiatives that will shape Bestway for years to come. We closed the year by becoming the largest cement manufacturer in Pakistan.
Construction trends are favourable in Pakistan and I am confident that we are particularly well positioned to succeed and accelerate growth through innovation." Domestic demand for the industry grew by 8 percent from 26.15 million tonnes to 28.21 million tonnes. Exports, however, fell by 12 percent from 8.1 million tonnes to 7.2 million tonnes mainly due to sluggish demand and competitive prices. The year 2014-15 posed fierce competition for cement producers. Bestway Cement not only persevered in increasing its market share in the north zone from 17 percent to 21.35 percent, but became the largest cement producer in the country.
Additionally, the company continued to be one of the largest exports of cement to Afghanistan and India. Earnings per share for Bestway Cement stood at Rs 14.96 from Rs 14.76, while Pakcem stood at Rs 0.41 against Rs 0.34 from the corresponding period. The Boards of Directors of both companies declared a full and final dividend of Rs 2.5 (25pc) for Bestway Cement and Rs 0.25 (2.5pc) for Pakcem.
During the year, the company further reduced its reliance on national grid by taking energy-saving initiatives and launched two 6MW and 7.5MW waste heat recovery power plants at its Hattar and Farooqia operations, and plans to inaugurate another 12MW plant at Pakcem Limited.-PR