Petronas Dagangan posts record revenue for first quarter

Malaysia’s Petronas Dagangan Bhd (PDB), the domestic marketing arm of Petronas, posted record revenues of RM6.852 billion (US$266.37 million) for the quarter that ended March 31 2012, reflecting an increase of 7.36% from RM6.382 billion (US$119.4 million) in the corresponding quarter of 2011. Profit before tax for the same period went up by 7.64% to RM339.7 million (US$105.98 million). PDB’s growth was attributed to the average product selling prices which were higher by 5%, and sales volume which was higher by 1.5%. Income from other sources, which amounted to RM4.1 million (US$1.28 million), supported the growth which was, however, offset by higher operating expenditures which reached RM16.7 million (US$5.2 million) due to depreciation and amortization, as well as the impairment of property, plant and equipment and other finance costs. “PDB continues to register a robust financial performance in the highly competitive downstream petroleum retail industry. All our core businesses are growing from strength-to-strength notwithstanding the challenging environment,” said Amir Hamzah Azizan, PDB’s managing director and chief executive officer. (May 22, 2012)