(The Group Comments) Cement's Net Profit Plunges 40% Down to QAR 129.42 Million in Q3 2019

Ø  Profits: decreased by 40.9% in the nine months period ended 30 September 2019, since the company achieved a profit of about QAR 129.4 million, compared to QAR 218.9 million for the same period of 2018. Similarly, Qatar Cement posted earnings per share of about QAR 0.198 for this period, versus QAR 0.335 for the corresponding period of 2018. As for the third quarter, the company posted a profit of QAR 29.3 million, compared to QAR 50.4 million for the same quarter last year.

The reasons for this decline can be summarized as follows:

      1.      Sales volume decreased by 15% to QAR 94.5 million. In this period, sales recorded QAR 538.5 million, compared to QAR 633.02 million for the same period of 2018. Although sales declined by 15%, sales costs only dropped by 3.90% or QAR 16.6 million during this period. This led to a decline in the total profit by about QAR 78 million. It is worth mentioning that during 2018 the company reversed the amount of electricity charges by QAR 50 million and reduced the amount of costs, which led to an increase in profit.

      2.      In this period, the company recorded a loss of QAR 3.2 million because of its investment in an associate, versus a profit of about QAR 471, 000 for the same period last year from the company's investment in Qatar Saudi Gypsum Industries.

      3.      Financing costs climbed by QAR 2.10 million.

Ø  Comprehensive Income: the company a profit from the valuation of investments of about QAR 38.7 million, compared to QAR 7.7 million for the corresponding period of 2018.