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Industries Qatar eyes QR7.7bn profit in 2015

By Nasser Al Harthy DOHA: Industries Qatar ( IQ ) expects revenues by an average of 15 percent per annum to over QR25bn in 2015. "The company is very solid and the profits and dividends to shareholders is continuously increasing," Minister of Energy and Industry, H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada told reporters here yesterday.

Net profits are expected to jump to approximately QR7.7bn in 2015 and total assets breaching the QR64bn mark.

Al Sada, who is also Chairman and Managing Director of IQ said on the sidelines of the company's shareholders' AGM: "The strength of this company is the fact that it is in the heart of the Qatari economy, it is managed by world-class vintage type of companies that have accumulated experiences for many years. Besides, the shareholder is the biggest economic entity of Qatar which is Qatar Petroleum (QP) that manages and set the strategy for it."

Al Sada added that IQ products exported to more than 85 countries, allows the company to expand confidently by ways and means. "The global economic crisis proved that IQ is so resilient, so strong to the extent that the company increased its production, because it is efficient and the unit cost is lower, while other companies reduced their production," said Al Sada.

Earlier, addressing the IQ shareholders AGM, Al Sada pointed out that 2010 was a very successful year for IQ . For only the second time in its eight year history, group revenues exceeded the QR12bn mark, closing the year at QR12.3bn while net profits totalled QR5.6bn, up 12.4 percent over 2009.

The Ras Laffan Olefins Cracker and Qatar Melamine Company were launched last year and significant progress was made on the construction of the Qafco 5 and 6 plants as well as the LDPE-3 facility.

In his statement IQ Chief Coordinator, Abdulrahman Ahmad Al Shaibi said that the company has developed solid foundations to ensure constant growth by focusing on major capital projects which are intended to boost the fundamental business. "As a result we started in 2010, the commercial production in one of IQ 's most important projects, Qatofin. We also launched last year the Ras Laffan Olefins Cracker project," said Al Shaibi.

He added that that in addition to the Melamine project, Qafco will launch this year its highly anticipated Qafco-5 project, by far the largest IQ project since its inception. As for 2012, LDPE-3 and Qafco -6 will be operational. While Qatar Steel's much anticipated expansion with a capacity of 1.1bn tonnes per annum, will start production during 2013. Furthermore, Qatar Steel is planning for its second and third phase of expansion during the next few years.

Al Shaibi said IQ 's production capacity in 2015 will be more than triple since the company's inception. IQ 's net profit for the year ended December 31, 2010 was QR 5.6bn, showing an increase of 12.4 percent on 2009. EBITDA margins for the year increased by 6.4 percent points to 51.7 percent, primarily due to significant price-driven margin improvements in the steel segment.

© The Peninsula 2011