Riyadh – Mubasher: United International Transportation Company (Budget) on Tuesday reported a profit decline in both the second quarter of 2018 and the first half of the year.

The car seller registered SAR 40.83 million in profits between April and June, down 4.3% year-on-year from SAR 42.67 million.

Quarter-on-quarter, Budget’s profits increased 3.13% from SAR 39.59 million, the company said in a filing to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).

Gross profit amounted to SAR 63.75 million in Q2-18 nearly unchanged from a year ago, while operating profit stood at 44.5 million, down 7.24% year-on-year from SAR 47,980 in Q2-17.

The car seller’s revenues amounted to SAR 250 million in Q2-18, down 11% from SAR 281 million in the same quarter of 2017.

As for the six-month period ended 30 June, Budget’s profits fell 5.53% to SAR 80.42 million from SAR 85.13 million in the same period of 2017.

Gross profits slipped by 1.02% to SAR 128.63 million in H1-18 from SAR 139.96 million in the corresponding period of the previous year, Budget’s bourse filing showed.

Budget attributed the profit fall in Q2-18 and H1-18 to lower revenues from short-term rentals and car sale gains due to “comparatively low number of vehicles sold.”

Budget previously posted a 6.8% year-on-year drop in profits to SAR 39.59 million in the three-month period ended March compared to SAR 42.48 million.

Saudi Budget’s stock closed Tuesday in the red, falling 1.13% to SAR 30.75.