Kuala Lumpur, 2 May 2018– PETRONAS Chemicals Group Berhad (PCG) held its annual
general meeting (AGM) today to present the company’s performance to its shareholders
for the financial year ended 31 December 2017.
Describing the overall performance of the Group, Managing Director/Chief Executive
Officer of PCG, Datuk Sazali Hamzah said, “PCG recorded its best ever performance in
terms of revenue, profit after tax and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortisation (EBITDA) since its listing in 2010.”
Speaking at the post AGM media conference, Sazali said that in 2017, despite the heavy
statutory turnaround at four of its facilities, PCG sustained its plant utilisation rate above
world-class standards at 91 per cent, as a result of its rigorous operational excellence
practices and feedstock management.
In addition, the company had also achieved product realisation from its growth project – PETRONAS Chemicals Fertiliser Sabah Sdn Bhd(PCFSSB), previously known as SAMUR, which contributed to the increase in production volume which grew by almost 10 per cent to 10.1 million metric tonnes from 9.2 million metric tonnes previously. This achievement is attributed to PCG’s good project delivery and commercialisation.
For the year 2017, with additional volume from PCFSSB, PCG recorded its highest sales
volume ever at 8.1 million metric tonnes compared to 7.3 million metrics tonnes in 2016.
Sazali further elaborated that the Group’s commercial excellence efforts and initiatives
has enabled PCG to gain additional value for its products.
“While market was in recovery mode in 2017, we saw limited upside on the product prices
as crude oil price remained volatile. Nevertheless, PCG saw encouraging demand for
petrochemicals across all of our products,” he said.
Given the strong operational and commercial achievements, PCG’s revenue for 2017 rose
by 26 per cent, reaching RM17.4 billion compared to RM13.7 billion in 2016. PCG’s EBITDA
for 2017 increased by 25 per cent to RM6.6 billion against RM5.3 billion in 2016, while the
Group’s EBITDA margin remained strong at 38 per cent.
The Company’s solid performance for the year was driven primarily by higher production
and sales volume.
The Company’s Profit After Tax (PAT) for the year also grew by 37 per cent to RM4.4
billion as compared to RM3.2 billion reported in the previous year.
For the year ended 31 December 2017, the Board of Directors declared a cumulative
dividend of 27 sen per share which translate to a 52% dividend payout for the year. At
RM2.2 billion, this is the highest payout for the Company.
