Cairo – Mubasher: Qalaa Holdings is expected to turn profitable by 2020 with the consolidation of the Egyptian Refining Company's (ERC) results in the first quarter of next year.  

“Management currently expects the consolidation of profits from ERC to begin in 2020, a development which is expected to turn Qalaa’s bottom-line to operational profitability with the contribution of other profitable subsidiaries, such as TAQA Arabia,” according to a bourse disclosure on Thursday.

The ERC is operating at an average capacity utilisation of 85% as of November and has sold about 1.3 million tonnes of products since being fully operational on 1 August.

“Qalaa took a very conservative view of accounting standards and chose to deduct net revenues from ERC’s sales from the ‘projects under construction’ item on the company’s balance sheet during this period and until the end of 2019,” the statement showed. 

It is noteworthy that during the first nine months of 2019, Qalaa Holdings suffered net losses of EGP 901.23 million, versus net profits of EGP 106.44 million in the year-ago period, including minority shareholders’ rights.