Padma Oil logs record profit, declares highest-ever dividend

Padma Oil has posted a record annual profit of Tk 5.63 billion for FY25, driven by higher sales and substantial non-operating income from bank deposits.

The state-run oil distributor also registered a 38 per cent year-on-year profit growth for the year, according to price-sensitive information published on Thursday.

The record profit prompted the company to declare its highest-ever cash dividend - 160 per cent - for FY25, up from 140 per cent paid for the year before.

As a result, investors will receive Tk 16 per share, and the company will spend Tk 1.57 billion in total to pay cash dividends from its annual profit of Tk 5.63 billion. That meansa major chunk of the annal income will be kept as retained earnings.

The profit escalated on the back of a substantial surge in non-operating income from bank deposits, said the company, adding that higher sales of petroleum products also supported profit growth.

Sales jumped as the demand for fuel oil went up during the year.

Although the company has yet to disclose the annual sales figures, its nine-month (July 2024 to March this year) net sales rose 25 per cent year-on-year to Tk 2.53 billion.

Interest income was up in FY25, compared to the year before, as banks offered higher deposit rates.The non-operating income soared by around 57 per cent year-on-year to Tk 4.26 billion in the nine months to March this year.

Padma Oil hadinvestments worth Tk 2.13 billion in short-term instruments and Tk 1 billion in long-term fixed deposit receipts as of March this year, according to its financial statements.

Its total operating income grew 81 per cent year-on-year to Tk 1.03 billion in the nine months to March this year due to higher sales.

The net operating cash flow per share, a measure of a company's ability to generate cash from its operations, stood at Tk 39.83 in the negative for FY25, against positive Tk 63.82 per share for the year before, mainly due to lower collection.

The company scheduled its annual general meeting for January 3 next year and the record date for the entitlement of dividends is November 27 this year.

Q1, FY26 performance

The company's profit in the first quarter of FY26 also escalated 27 per cent year-on-year to Tk 1.58 billion for increased non-operating income from bank deposits.

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 more than 35 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.

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