Qatar Fuel Company Q.P.S.C. ("WOQOD") (QFLS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the WOQOD First Quarter 2022 Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Bobby Sarkar. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. Hi, hello, everyone. This is Bobby Sarkar, Head of Research at QNB financial services. I wanted to welcome everyone to WOQOD's First Quarter 2022 Results Conference Call. So on this call, as usual, from QFLS management, we have Pradeep Kumar, who is the CFO; Sultan Al-Maadeed, who is the Finance Manager; Mufaddal Jariwala, who is the Treasury Head and IR Officer. So we will conduct this conference with management first reviewing the company's results followed by Q&A. I would like to now turn the call over to Mufaddal. Mufaddal, please go ahead.

Thank you so much, Bobby. Good day to all the participants, and we hope everyone is keeping safe and healthy. We welcome you all to WOQOD's quarter ended March 2022 results conference call and appreciate your participation as WOQOD is committed to continuously enhance its investor relations initiatives. This is in order to strengthen our communication and improve transparency with all members of the global investment community. The presentation of this call will be available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Any statement that refers to expectations, projections, guidance or any other characterizations of future events, including financial projections or future market conditions, is a forward-looking statement based on the assumptions today. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. The company cannot disclose any commercially sensitive information due to the confidentiality agreement signed with suppliers. Please refer to Slide #2 for the full version of disclaimer statements. All figures expressed in this call are in Qatari rials and the conversion for the same to U.S. dollar is QAR 3.64 to USD 1. Now I would like to hand the call over to our Finance Manager, Mr. Sultan Jassim Al-Maadeed to provide a brief overview of WOQOD and update on the key operational activities.

Thank you, Mufaddal. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for the conference call of WOQOD. The key vision of WOQOD is to be the leading petroleum product distribution company in the region. I am on Slide 4 now, which shows the overview for WOQOD Group. WOQOD started operation in 2002 with exclusive rights for storage and distribution of petroleum products in the state of Qatar. Operations started with only 2 petrol station back in 2003 and has grown to 119 stations by end of March 2022. The chart on the right shows WOQOD station network. WOQOD also operates 13 profit centers for inspections of vehicles. I am on Slide 5 now, which shows the key operation of WOQOD Group. The key operation for WOQOD Group are diesel and gasoline fuel sales distribution, jet fuel sales, shore-to-ship and ship-to-ship bunkering, LPG sales and distribution, natural gas sales and distribution, fuel bunkering, bitumen operation, C-store and auto care activities, vehicle inspection services. I am on Slide 7 now, which shows the diesel and gasoline fuel sales volume and product trend analysis. As was mentioned before, the core activity of WOQOD is fuel sales and distribution in the state of Qatar. For the quarter ended March 2022 versus the same quarter of last year's vision, sales volume were lower by 2% driven by macroeconomic factors. Combined gasoline sales were up by 4%, driven by market demand and easing of restrictions. Total fuel sales is higher by 1% driven by market demand. Average fuel prices were higher by 40% in first quarter 2022 versus the same quarter of last year. The diesel and gasoline chart on the top shows the trend over the past 5 quarters, which shows a constant trend. Turning to Slide 9 now, which shows the jet fuel sales volume comparison. Jet fuel sales were higher by 22% in first quarter 2022 compared to the same period last year, driven by easing of COVID-19 related air travel restriction in many countries. Sales for first quarter 2022 was higher by 1% than last quarter, driven by improved uptake from airlines. Combined sales volume for all petroleum products increased by 10% for the first quarter 2022 as compared to the same quarter of last year. Turning to Slide 9 now, which shows the retail fuel sales volume comparison for first quarter ending 2022 versus of the same quarter of last year. Retail fuel sales volume at petro station were higher by 5% for the quarter compared to same quarter last year driven by market demand. The share of WOQOD in the petroleum retail market reached about 86% in the first quarter of 2022. Turning to Slide 10, which shows the retail fuel sales volume quarterly trend. For the first quarter 2022 versus the same of last year, overall retail volume increased by 5%, driven by increased market demand. Retail diesel sales increased by 5% and retail gasoline sales increased by 5%. We would like to share some additional information on other business segments for the quarter ending March 2022 versus of the same of last year. Natural gas sales decreased by 12% driven by market demand. Diesel bunkering sales increased by 3%, driven by market demand. Nonpetroleum retail segment increased by 1%, driven by various initiatives. Now I'd like to hand over the call to our CFO, Mr. Pradeep Kumar, to discuss the key financial results.

Thanks, Sultan, for all the volume updates. Good day, everyone, and hope everyone is safe and healthy. Now I would like to discuss the consolidated financial results of WOQOD for the first quarter ended March 2022. Starting with revenue. I'm on Slide 12 now, which shows the revenue trend of WOQOD. Revenue from fuel sales account for nearly 96% of the total revenue. WOQOD achieved total revenue of QAR 5.9 billion for the quarter compared to QAR 3.8 billion during the same period last year, showing an increase of 55%. The main reason for increase in revenue are increase in sales volume by 10% and increase in overall prices by 42%. As compared to fourth quarter of 2021, the revenue remained almost flat. Turning to Slide 13, which shows the net income. WOQOD has made a net income of QAR 263 million for the quarter ended March 2022 as compared to QAR 253 million during the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 4%. This was mainly driven by higher sales volume and other income. The detailed analysis of net income variance is given in the next slide. Slide 14 shows the key variance finance of net income for the quarter ended March 2022 versus the fourth quarter of last year. The increase in net income of QAR 10 million is due to following major factors. Margin increased by QAR 38 million, mainly driven by increase in volume. Trading stock price variance, mainly driven by comparatively lower increase in fuel prices during first quarter 2022 against first quarter 2021. 42% price increase during first quarter '21, again 6% increase in first quarter 2022. Other income and G&A expense net higher by $14 million, mainly driven by higher dividend income. WOQOD fundamentals continue to remain robust and WOQOD is committed to meet all its strategic goals while placing safety as a top priority. The company managed to reduce the negative impacts of pandemic by taking several proactive steps and initiatives to ensure continuity of its business under these critical circumstances. WOQOD has a strong leadership committed towards delivering the results to the shareholders. With this, we are ready for the Q&A session. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Vikram Vis from NBK.

Actually, this is the first time I'm looking at Qatar Fuel. Is it possible to tell us what is your strategy going forward? In the sense, is the strategy oriented towards growth? Or is it oriented towards cash distribution of dividends? If you can just tell us about your strategy for the next few years, it will be great.

Our primary focus is on growth and to ensure that our objective is met, and that's why you see lot of expansion of petrol station network, and now we are focusing on the EV also. So that's kind of our focus and our long-term strategy.

Okay. Clear, clear. Do you have a target in mind in the sense, how many stations do you have now? And what is the target, let's say, 3 years or 5 years later?

Well, at present, we have 119 stations in operations. And this year, we are going to add another 10 stations by end of third quarter. So that's the plan. And every year, we visit our plan. It's very dynamic based on the market requirements.

Clear. I've looked at other comparable companies like, for example, Aldrees and [indiscernible] distribution. I just wanted to confirm when it comes to gross margins, do you get paid a gross profit per liter, which is fixed? Or is it a different model that is followed in Qatar?

Well, the margin is fixed per liter.

Okay. How much is the gross margin per liter now? Can I ask?

Sorry. This is commercially sensitive information, and we never disclose this information.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Right. Right. Okay. And in the slide, I saw that when you showed the waterfall chart, there was a trading price variance, which had a QAR 42 million negative impact on the income. Is this gains on the inventory?

Yes, Vikram. That's on the inventory that we carry. We have a trading inventory of around on an average, 150 million liters. And if you take last year first quarter, price increased since [ I believe ] whereas this year, and it's almost kind of reached the peak percent.

We'll now take our next question from [ Michael Malcolm ] from Jefferies.

I just had a quick question about the FOL and if you have any update on any approvals that are still required from your end.

So we have received the approvals from the shareholders to our AGM. Now we are working with all the concerned department and the ministry, and we expect to complete everything in this quarter itself.

Our next question comes from Zohaib Pervez from Al Rayan Investments.

I have a question on the trading price variance. Could you give us more understanding of what this means? As I understand, the other participant mentioned, it is related to inventory gains. But if the prices were higher, then why is there a loss in this? Could you give us a more sense of what this number is? That's my first question. The other question is on CapEx. The CapEx for the quarter was high. It was at QAR 75 million. Usually, is this related to new stations being built? And what would be the CapEx for this year?

Yes. As I explained before, the trading stock price variance is mainly from the increase in prices. So if you take the increase in prices in the first quarter of 2021, it was much higher than the increase in the first quarter of 2022. So the price increase during first quarter of 2021 was 42%, whereas this quarter, it is only 6%. So naturally, we gained a lot during first quarter of 2021 and this quarter as compared to last quarter of 2021, it is much lower. That's why it's showing a negative variance of QAR 42 million. That's on the first part. On the second part, CapEx, yes, as I just mentioned, we are in the process of completing 10 petrol stations. We are incurring towards that as well as we are doing a lot of reliability improvements.

Were any stations completed in this quarter?

No, we are not completed, but we are targeted to complete all these before end of third quarter of 2020.

All right. One -- my last question is what -- as I understand, you're also moving towards electronic stations -- stations for electronic vehicles. So how much of the CapEx is assigned to that, if any?

Well, at this point, we are planning to install EV chargers in 23 petrol stations. So 5 is under construction, and that is already reflected in the QAR 75 million. So this year, we expect in the range of around QAR 20 million max.

QAR 20 million. Okay.

Our next question comes from Nitin Garg from SICO.

This is Nitin from SICO. Just wanted to ask, I mean, how much is your net income driven from jet fuel business and bunker fuel business? And is there any competition in these 2 businesses, I mean jet fuel and bunker fuel? In particular to that, I mean, do you have any outlook on these 2 businesses? I mean, do you expect to benefit from FIFA world cup for jet fuel business? And Qatar LNG expansion, I mean, do you think you will benefit from -- the bunker fuel business, especially should benefit from Qatar LNG expansion project?

Well, jet fuel accounts for nearly 40% of our revenues. So that much is kind of our segmental income from that. Now regarding the diesel bunkering, it's such a low volume, it's around 63 million only in terms of volumes. So it's less than 5% each. Now yes, definitely, we expect jet fuel segment to go up during the FIFA world cup. And definitely, to that extent, we expect some benefits from that segment. And on a long-term basis, as we are looking forward to the expansion projects in Qatar, where we expect some improvement in the sales in the coming years.

So just a follow-up. Have you seen any positive uptick from jet fuel business? I mean how much is the volume increase?

Yes. If you compare to the last…

And how much overall growth you expect this year in jet fuel business?

Yes. As compared to last year first quarter, it's 22% increase in that segment. So it's all driven by COVID related restriction and everything. Now a lot of restrictions have been removed, so people start traveling. So that's why we see this improvement. And we expect this to improve in the coming quarters as well.

So do you have any competition in this business? Or Qatar Fuel is the sole provider of jet fuel to Qatar Airways?

We are the sole provider of all the fuels in the state of Qatar.

And how is the margin? - I mean, this business has higher margin than the retail fuel or it has lower margin? I mean I'm not asking number, but is it a high-margin business or the low-margin business?

Well, I told you this is commercially sensitive information. We'll keep it confidential.

And there are currently no further questions. [Operator Instructions] As there are no further questions in the queue, I would like to hand the call -- up and we have a pop-up question from Majid Al-Marzouqi from Aventicum Capital.

With regards to your EV charges for the electric vehicles, do you have any price mechanism in place toward that? Or is it just in the works of just creating these and planting them into the stations?

It's being finalized. At present, we are trying to install all the chargers and will be finalized with [ Qatama ].

As there are no further questions in the queue, I would like to hand the call back over to our speakers for any additional or closing remarks. Over to you, Bobby.

Thank you. This is Bobby Sarkar again. So if there are no further questions, we can end the call for today. I want to thank Pradeep, Sultan and Mufaddal for taking the time to talk to investors and answer our questions. And we'll pick this up next quarter. Thank you all guys.

Thank you, gentlemen, for joining the call, and we look forward to seeing you all in the next quarter and then in the next IR call. We wish you health for everybody. Thank you so much once again. Have a wonderful day.

Thank you all.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.