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Oman’s Al Anwar Ceramic Tiles reported a year-on-year surge in quarterly net profit, triggering a rally in the company’s shares in early trading on Tuesday.
Al Anwar’s first quarter (Q1) net profit for the current year amounted to 623,342 Omani rials ($ 1.62 million), compared to 368,577 rials in Q1 2018, translating into a 69.11 percent rise and largely beating SICO Bank’s estimate of a 220,000 rial profit.
“This is the first time since 1Q16 that revenue has grown YoY (year-on-year) during the first quarter,” Anoop Fernandes, a senior research analyst at Bahrain-based investment bank SICO, said in a note seen by Zawya on Tuesday.
The company’s revenue amounted to 5.64 million rials in Q1 2019, compared to 5.56 million rials in Q1 2018, translating into a 1.44 percent increase.
“We continue to see deep value in the stock, with potential AD (Anti-dumping) duties on tiles in the region being the major stock catalyst,” Fernandes said, noting to Zawya by email that the GCC ceramics industry is seeking an investigation on the dumping of tiles into the GCC by companies from India, China and Spain.
The company’s shares were trading 3.33 percent higher early on Tuesday, at 0.093 rials by 12:31 GST and have gained in value by 27 percent since the start of 2019.
SICO Bahrain rates the company’s stock as “Buy”, with a target price of 0.128 rials per share.
(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Michael Fahy)
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