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Satyendra Pathak
Doha
Industries Qatar (IQ) will continue to focus on essential investments to enhance its efficiency, competitiveness and quality of the operating asset base, the group's chairman has said.
Addressing shareholders during the group's annual general assembly meeting on Tuesday, Industries Qatar Chairman Saad Sherida al Kaabi said the group would also selectively invest in other capital investment projects to strengthen its competitive position in the market.
He said,"The competitive advantages not only help in mitigating the threats enforced by depressed economic conditions, but will also keep the group ahead of competition and boost the confidence of external bodies such as credit rating agencies, lending institutions and investors."
Providing updates on the group's cost and operational optimisation, he said,"The group was able to improve its operating costs by more than 5 percent in 2016 following the successful implementation of the cost optimisation initiatives. These improvements were achieved through a range of efforts, including access to raw materials and other services with competitive prices, rationalisation of operations and enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in many facets of the business."
Since the implementation of the cost and operation optimisation programme in late 2014, Kaabi said, the group was able to achieve cost savings of QR600 million.
"The group will continue to benefit from the ongoing cost optimisation programme to achieve further savings," he said.
Citing the recently announced plan to integrate the activities of Qatar Vinyl Company (QVC) and Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO) as a major effort to improve revenues and profitability of the group, he said,"The shareholders of Industries Qatar and MPHC will directly benefit from this integration."
Asked if the group was looking for more such integrations, he said,"We always look for such possibilities. The ultimate objective of such initiative is to reduce the cost of overall operations so that the group continues to be more efficient and competitive in the global market space."
Kaabi also informed the shareholders that the group was able to reduce its total debt to QR2.9 billion across all companies demonstrating its strong liquidity position which was essential to withstand the effects of a challenging macro-economic environment.
"The group's financial position continues to improve with cash and bank balances across all group companies reaching a record QR 11.3 billion, re-emphasising the group's robust financial position, and reaffirming the group's ability to generate positive cash flows even during tougher economic times," he said.
Talking about the group's outlook in the current year, he said the recent rebound in the crude oil prices would help the group companies to perform well in 2017.
Later during the meeting, the shareholders approved the board's recommendation for a dividend payment of QR 4 per share.
