Arabian Cement’s Q2 losses higher than estimates: Al Rajhi Cap

Arabian Cement’s Q2 2018 net loss of SAR 50.9 million was below Al Rajhi Capital’s estimates and consensus of SAR 8 million and SAR 10 million respectively.

This deviation came as the competition in the western region market is getting stronger, resulting in companies offering deep discounts.

As a consequence, Arabian Cement’s average realized price was sharply lower at SAR 130/ton (-17.6 percent YoY,+5.7 percent QoQ). The company was trying to retain selling prices from further decreases, but that came on the account of their market share which decreased significantly to 5.5 percent in Q2 2018 (vs. 8.4 percent in Q2 2017).

Arabian Cement’s miss was mostly attributable to its Jordanian operations (Qatrana Cement), which recorded a higher than estimated net loss of SAR 52.2 million in Q2 2018, Al Rajhi Cap explained.

“Going forward, we expect that the realized selling prices fluctuations could continue in the coming quarters. However, we expect that selling prices would stabilize in the following years given the mega construction projects in the western region and the company’s comparatively low inventory level”, Al Rajhi Cap noted.

Arabian cement is forecast to continue achieving net losses in the near future giving that there were no recovery signs either locally or in the Jordanian market.

“We adjusted our forecasts and expectations of the future earnings , resulting in a decrease of our target price to SAR19.5/share , implying an “underweight” rating”, the brokerage noted.