Karachi, 4 August, 2018,
Engro Foods declared 1HCY18 profit after tax at Rs511 million (earnings per share: Rs0.67), up 174 per cent from Rs186m (EPS: Rs0.21) in the corresponding period of previous year.

Analysts attributed the earnings increase to better margins, higher other income and tax credit. For the quarter ended June 30, the company reported net profit at Rs210m (EPS: Rs0.27) against loss of Rs145m and loss per share at Rs0.19 in the same quarter of last year.

The quarterly figures took market by surprise as a loss was anticipated. It was mitigated by a tax credit of Rs196m and higher than expected other income. Analysts at Topline Securities said that the company was struggling to re-position itself in the dairy segment which constitutes over 90 per cent of the company’s revenues.

The decline in revenue in the latest quarter was also due to the growing competition in the tea-whitening segment where the company used to dominate through its flagship ‘Tarang’. At the stock market, EFOODs share gained Rs2.32 on Friday and closed at Rs92.49 with trading in 1.5m shares.—Equities Correspondent

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Allianz confident of meeting profit targets

BERLIN: German insurance giant Allianz said on Friday it was confident of hitting its full-year targets despite a dip in second-quarter net profit due to the sale of life insurance activities in Taiwan. Net profit attributable to shareholders at the group sank 5.2 per cent year-on-year to 1.89 billion ($2.19bn eurox) between April and June, slightly higher than the 1.8bn eurox forecast by financial services company Factset.