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

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Qatari Investors Group. Please note that this call is being recorded. I'd now like to hand the call over to Roy Thomas, you may now begin.

Thanks, Ali. Hello, everyone. This is Roy Thomas from QNB Financial Services. I want to welcome everyone to Qatari Investors Group's Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. On this call from Qatari Investors Group, we have Rami Atieh, the Financial Director; and Muhammad Shiraz, the Group Financial Controller. We will conduct this conference call with management first to begin the company's results, followed by Q&A. I will turn the call now over to Rami Atieh. Go ahead, Rami.

Thank you, Roy. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I will first present the review in English, followed by the same review in Arabic. After that, we will move on to the Q&A session. It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Qatari Investors Group IR call. My name is Rami Atieh and I serve as the Finance Director of the group. Joining me today is Mr. Muhammad Shiraz, our Group Financial Controller. We are pleased to present the annual results of Qatari Investors Group for 2024 highlighting the financial performance and progress achieved over the past year. For 2024, the group recorded a total revenue of QAR 501 million, reflecting a 3% decline compared to last year. The decrease was primarily driven by the industrial sector, which faced a slowdown in the construction market compared to the previous year. However, other sectors demonstrated strong performance, notably the Marine Service sector saw a 29% increase in revenue driven by the introduction of a new line of business. The group's net profit for the year stood at QAR 165 million, marking a 12% decline compared to last year. Additionally, EBITDA for the year reached QAR 298 million representing an 8% decrease year-over-year. Over the past few years, the market experienced significant growth, largely fueled by the preparation for the FIFA World Cup and associated projects, which included in December 2023. This made comparison with 2023 more challenging. However, QIG excel maintained sustainable profit margin despite a further market slowdown in several sectors. Looking ahead, we remain committed to diversifying our investments, driving further achievements that enhanced the group's value and enable us to play an active role in supporting Qatar's economic vision. Thank you, and I will move to the Arabic text. [Foreign Language] Thank you very much, and we are open to your Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Zohaib Pervez from AI Rayan Investments.

So my question is on your inventories. So your inventories for the last 4 years seems to be on an increasing path, and they've closed the year at 20,000. So could you give us more insight into how do you see these inventories going forward? And would you be like doing something on the plant because one of your competitors actually stopped the plant and utilizing their inventories, would you try to think of going that route? So that's my question.

This is Muhammad Shiraz, Group Financial Controller. The answer to your question related to specific to inventory is the reason, yes, definitely, we have from the past record that we are building up our inventory, keeping in view that we have some certain take-or-pay agreements. So that is one reason that we are maintaining. Second part of this, which we already highlighted by Rami Atieh that we are exploring the new marketing as export. So this time, we achieved a marginal amount of export materials. Definitely going forward, it will -- our near utilization should be in the export area. So I hope this justifies your question.

Which countries are you exporting to?

Right now, there are 2 countries, Kuwait and [ Bahrain ].

And are there like a significant portion of your total cement production? What percentage of your total cement sales would these 2 -- with exports be?

So right now, this is what I'm saying, this is our first year of export activity. So it's not a substantial to -- as compared to my local sales. So definitely, we are looking for a positive figure and a substantial figure in the next upcoming years.

Okay. And so on your inventory that you mentioned, are you planning on continuing your plant, you don't plan on shutting down the plant, right?

No, no. We keep continuing.

[Operator Instructions] As of right now, we've got another question from Zohaib Pervez from Al Rayan Investments.

I might as well ask more questions. Could you give us some insights on how do you see the local cement industry specifically that is by far your largest segment. So could you give us some insight on how do you see that? How do you see the volume shaping up?

Well, currently, the market is stable. We're anticipating there are any major projects advertised or announced by the government. But otherwise, we hope to continue on the same pattern. And that's it, unless the government for -- asks any major projects, and that will be, of course, a opportunity for growth.

But you don't see further deterioration in volumes? You do not see further decline in volumes? This is probably the base what you achieve.

We don't see any indications that the market will going to drop. And we are hopeful that it will continue on the same pattern. This is as of now. Of course, in the future, we don't know what will happen. But I mean, these are the indicators right now that we are going to sustain the current market, the current demand.

Okay. There were a number of one-offs in your results for '24 and '23. If we remove these one-offs, then what will be your actual normalized net profit growth? I mean last year, for example, you had a provision on your available for sale, I think, impairment of those for QAR 12 million?

Yes. Yes. QAR 12 million is basically for the goodwill. We did the assessment for this goodwill impairment. And last year, we fund an indication and accordingly, we record this. And this time, it is -- there is no indications so we didn't. Similarly, last time, we had third-party experts who did this evaluation of our property per risk standards. So last time, they provided around QAR 3.8 million that last year is immediate after [ workup ]. So prices are drastically down. And this time, some stability, some new projects are announced by the state. So we have some marginal increase of revaluation that is around QAR 13 million. So approximately...

[indiscernible] This improvement was the [ EBITDA ] revaluation?

Yes. [ EBITDA ]. No. This is QIG Tower, but yes, there we also have, and then we have another plan, which is near to, I think, what is the name of the new...

Qatar Island.

Qatar Pearl Island. So there, we have 1 property. So that is appreciated.

As of right now, we don't have any pending questions. So I'd now like to hand back over to Roy Thomas for further remarks.

If there are no further questions, we'd like to thank Qatari Investors Group's management for the results update and answering all the queries. And we look forward to speaking to you all for the first quarter 2025 financial results conference call. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Roy.

Thank you for attending today's call. You may now disconnect. Have a wonderful day.