Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSO), the leading oil marketing company of the country, held its 41st Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Karachi. The Managing Director and CEO, Sheikh Imranul Haque chaired the meeting with senior officials from the company. PSO has sold 2.7 Million MTs of MOGAS and 3.8 Million MTs in High Speed Diesel during the FY2017. The company hence achieved a market share of 54.8% in FY2017. Similarly, in White Oil (MOGAS, HSD, SKO and Jet Fuel) the company achieved a market share of 43.9%. The company also increased its sales volume in MOGAS by 9.4% in FY2017 over SPLY and achieved a market share of 39.6% in FY2017.
Likewise, the HSD sales witnessed an increase of 0.9% over SPLY and PSO maintained its market leadership with a market share of 44.4% in FY2017. PSO significantly improved its sale volume to 35.4KMTs in the highly competitive lubricants segment by achieving an approximate growth of 27.9%. 2017 also remained very promising for PSO in LPG business with volumetric market growth of 105.9%.
Speaking at the AGM, PSO’s Managing Director and CEO, said: “It is our resounding customer centric business approach that has continued to make PSO the primary choice of customers for their fuel and non-fuel requirements. Despite many challenges that the business continues to deal with, Pakistan State Oil reported 76.7% more profit-after-tax of Rs 18.2 billion in FY2017 as compared to Rs 10.3 billion last year, and has shown a remarkable growth of 163.8% over the last two years when it earned Rs 6.9 billion profit-after-tax in FY2015.”
During the course of the AGM, Sheikh ImranulHaque highlighted the phenomenal strides the company has taken in accordance with its vision to become a beacon for both fueling and non-fueling retail services. Highlighting that MrHaque added: “The company recently expanded its non-fuel business initiatives by launching revamped retail ‘Shop Stop’ stores as well as branchless banking services have also been made accessible at PSO retail outlets to enable customers to perform basic financial transactions in a safe and secure environment. Together, these facilities bring added convenience and enablement to the customers.” While highlighting health, safety and environment initiatives as one of PSO’ top priorities, he also said:
“PSO places the highest value on health and safety of all its customers and staff. It has a comprehensive and well-honed safety system in place to ensure workplace and fuel transportation safety, and emergency preparedness. These initiatives have been further strengthened by joining hands with notable institutions such as the National Highways & Motorway Police (NH&MP) and the National Logistics Cell (NLC) which will provide training to PSO employees and tank lorry drivers, vehicle safety checks, and emergency response procedures.”
“Furthermore, PSO has taken initiatives to improve its safety system by entering into a contract with Pakistan Railways to increase fuel shipments by using the railways infrastructure.” While appreciating the efforts of the PSO management, shareholders expressed concerns over the rising circular debt of the company due to outstanding receivables mainly from the power sector and PIA.
Shareholders also appreciated the best performance of PSO management over the last two years. They complimented outstanding results that have led to an unprecedented highest EBITDA since 2014.