UpdateThai SCG Q4 net profit surges to $539m on divestment gains

26 January 2011 08:55  [Source: ICIS news]

(adds details throughout, including Q4 volume sales of polyolefins)

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--The Siam Cement Group (SCG), Thailand’s biggest conglomerate, said on Wednesday its fourth-quarter net profit more than tripled to baht (Bt) 16.7bn ($539m), having booked a hefty sum largely from the sale of its stake in PTT Chemical.

Without the divestment gains, the annual increase in net profit would be a tamer 26% and a minimal 3% increase from the third quarter, it said in a disclosure to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

SCG's sales for the three months to December, meanwhile, were up 23% year on year at Bt76.3bn, but down 4% quarter on quarter, it said.

Its chemicals business recorded a 42% jump in sales to Bt37.7bn, with net profit logging a near-fivefold annual increase to Bt12.6bn, it said.

A 40-day maintenance shutdown at the company’s first cracker and downstream operations led to lower sales volumes and profit from its chemicals division in the fourth quarter compared with the third, it said.

Quarter on quarter, net profit from SCG's chemicals segment fell 5%, the company said. Over the same period, total sales of polyolefins - high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) - fell by 58,000 tonnes to 374,000 tonnes, SCG said.

SCG’s overall earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the December quarter increased 20% year on year to Bt11.7bn and up 7% from the previous quarter, it said.

For the full year, SCG’s net profit surged 54% to Bt37.4bn as sales grew 26.2% to Bt301.3bn, the company said.

EBITDA for the full year slipped 2% to Bt45.9bn to a near-halving of its chemicals segement's EBITDA margins to 9%, SCG said.

($1 = Bt30.98)

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