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The state-run Padma Oil Company secured an almost 17 per cent year-on-year growth in profit to Tk 4.08 billion in FY24, driven by higher sales of petroleum products and increased non-operating income.
The earnings per share (EPS) soared to Tk 41.59 in FY24 from Tk 35.58 the year before, according to a stock exchange filing on Wednesday.
The profit rose on the back of a substantial surge in non-operating income against bank deposits, said the company, adding that higher sales were also behind the profit growth.
Sales jumped as the demand for fuel oil went up during the year.
Moreover, interest income was up in FY24 compared to the year before as banks offered higher deposit rates.
Interest rate has been in an upward momentum since the government removed the ceiling of lending rate in July last year. The rate further rose when the government stopped controlling it and left it to the market in May this year.
Based on the higher profit, the company declared 140 per cent cash dividends for FY24, the highest since its listing on the stock exchanges in 1976.
Following the news, the stock climbed 7.24 per cent to Tk 220.8 per share on Wednesday on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) despite the overall market being in the red.
The company will pay Tk 14 per share against its income of Tk 41.59 each share.
Currently, the company's number of shares is 98.23 million. That means it will distribute Tk 1.38 billion in cash dividends while a major chunk of the income will be kept as retained earnings.
Although the company has yet to disclose the annual sales figures, its nine-month revenue rose 3 per cent year-on-year to Tk 2.02 billion through March this year.
The non-operating income jumped 12 per cent year-on-year to Tk 2.72 billion in the nine months to March.
The net operating cash flow per share, a measure of a company's ability to generate cash from its operations, shot up to Tk 63.82 per share in FY24, against Tk 51.99 in the negative the year before, mainly due to higher collection.
The company set its annual general meeting on January 11 next year and the record date for entitlement of dividends is December 3 this year.
First-quarter performance of FY25
The company's profit in the first quarter of FY25 also escalated 32 per cent year-on-year to Tk 1.24 billion for higher non-operating income from bank deposits.
Its net earnings from petroleum trading grew 9 per cent year-on-year to Tk 758 million while non-operating income jumped 35 per cent to Tk 1.30 billion in the July-September quarter.
Padma Oil, a subsidiary of Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), is the largest and oldest oil company that engages in procurement, storage, and marketing of petroleum products, lubricants, greases, bitumen, LPG and agro-chemicals.
It has nearly 37 per cent share in the country's fuel oil market, making it the number one among oil marketing companies in Bangladesh.
In recent years, the oil company moved to make LPG more available as a primary fuel source for vehicles in Bangladesh as part of the government's efforts to increase LPG consumption in the country in the face of fast depletion of the natural gas reserves.