Petron posts turnaround with P513-M income in 1st semester

Publicly listed Petron Corp. reported yesterday a net income of P513 million in the first half semester of 2001, a turnaround from its P628 million net loss registered in the same period in 2000.

During the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting yesterday, Petron president and chief executive Motassim Al-Ma’ashouq attributed earnings for the first half of the year to relatively more stable crude prices and to the cost pressures which have eased.

Sales volume increased by 12 percent to P44.55 billion for the period January to June this year from P39.85 billion in the same period last year.

With its performance, Petron regained the top position in the oil industry as of the first half of 2001 with a market share of 38.2 percent. The top spot was held by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. in the first quarter of 2001.

"We have regained leadership as we acquired major industrial accounts in the second quarter," Al-Ma’ashouq said.

He said the company’s comprehensive marketing strategy also helped in the company’s return to profitability. "We have implemented certain strategic measures on top of our ongoing cost-cutting programs to help ease the pressures resulting from unrecovered costs and to improve efficiency and return on investments," he said.

Petron expects to have the same earnings performance for the second half of the year.

At yesterday’s meeting, the company’s new board of directors was elected. The new board of Petron include: Nicasio Alcantara as chairman, Antonio Carpio, Francisco Viray, Bernardino Abes (government nominees for Philippine National Oil Co. which owns 40 percent), Al-Ma’ashouq, Abdullatif Al-Othman, Khalid Al-Falih, Ziad Labban (for Saudi Aramco which owns 40 percent) and independent nominees Jose Luis Yulo and Doughan Al-Doughan.

Meanwhile, Petron announced that it woud float bonds by the end of this year to fund its modernization and upgrading projects that are geared towards compliance to the requirement of the Clean Air Act.

Specifically, the company intends to allocate some $100 million for the construction of an Isomerization Plant and a Gasoil Hydrotreater.

Petron vice president for finance Antonio Pelayo said about 30 percent of the $100 million will come from internally generated funds while the remaining 70 percent would be raised in the financial market through issuance of long-term commercial papers.

"We are looking at various options. We are likely to issue long-term bonds with five to six years maturity," he said.