Qatari Investors Group Q.P.S.C. (QIGD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Qatari Investors Group Conference Call. I would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded. Thank you. I'd now like to welcome Roy Thomas to begin the conference. Roy, over to you.

Thank you. Hello, everyone. This is Roy Thomas from QNB Financial Services. I want to welcome everyone to Qatari Investor Group Second Quarter and First Half 2023 Financial Results Conference Call. On this call from Qatari Investors Group, we have Joseph Abdo, the Chief Executive Officer; and Ahmad Tawfiq, the Chief Financial Officer. We will conduct this conference call with management first reviewing the company's results followed by Q&A. I will turn the call now over to Joseph Abdo. Go ahead, Joseph.

Thank you very much. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I will start with our English text then as usual, we go for the Arabic one, and then we will open for Q&A. Ladies and gentlemen, it's my pleasure to welcome you to the earnings call of Qatari Investor Group, known as QIG. My name is Joseph Abdo, the CEO of the group. And here with me Mr. Ahmad Tawfiq, our CFO. We are pleased to present to you the semi annual results of QIG Group for 2023. We will highlight the financial performance of the group and the progress that have been realized during the period. The group achieved a total revenue amounting to QAR 268 million for the period, which is lower than the same period of last year by 31%. This drop was led by the industrial sector as a result of the market slowdown in the construction sector as compared to last year. In addition, other sectors such as marine services have witnessed a decline in the top line due to the drop in cargo imports for the period as compared to last year. The group net profits for the first half of the year amounted to QAR 102 million, which is a 14% decline as compared to the same period of last year as a result of the drop in overall revenues. Group EBITDA reached QAR 161 million for the period, same 14% lower than last year, also due to the drop in overall revenues. Overall, the last couple of years witnessed a significant growth in the overall market due to the FIFA 2022 preparations and projects, which have been ended last December. This fact made the comparison with 2023 a bit difficult, but QIG have successfully managed to maintain sustainable profitability margins despite the overall market decline in several sectors. Finally, we're in the process of evaluating some projects in the pipeline as part of our continuous effort in implementing the strategy of diversification in investments to make more achievements that benefit the group, and make us play a role in supporting Qatar's economic vision. Thank you. I'll move to the Arabic text. [Foreign Language] We can move to your questions, ladies and gentlemen.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Zohaib Pervez from Al Rayan Investment.

I've got a couple of questions. Firstly, could you tell me how is the cement sector doing currently? And what was your volumes sold for the first half of '23? My second question is more general in nature, considering you have a very wide range of subsidiaries which spans across many sectors. How do you see the economy post World Cup framing out?

Thank you for your questions. Always pleasure to answer in details and as brief as possible your questions. For the first one, the sector of cement is doing as per our expectation. And one of the expectation is that the last quarter and the first quarter of 2024, we'll be witnessing a couple of new projects that will be introduced to the market. So we are preparing ourselves to be ready to cater these new demands. Precisely, in the areas of Ras Laffan and precisely with the civil work that is going to be around the new platforms in this area. On the second question, the economy overall, it's witnessing a slowing in many sectors. However, for our group, it's not less mainly in profit than 2021, which is a good indication. And in our diversification, we're focusing on the areas of gas and oil services wherever we can cater and serve these areas from marine services, from mobility and also from other activities in the industrial, like scaffolding and other activities related to the gas and oil. We need to focus on where the growth is coming for the coming period, which is mainly driven by the gas and oil.

[Operator Instructions] There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand the call back to Mr. Roy Thomas.

All right. If there are no further questions, we'd like to thank both Joseph Abdo and Ahmad Tawfiq for the results update and answering the query, and I look forward to speaking to you all for the third quarter results. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Bye-bye. Thank you.

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