Saudi Cement registered revenue of SR387 million ($103 million) in Q3, a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 24.7% and growth in sales was supported by a 19.8% y-o-y growth in volume and an improvement in average realization, a report said.

Cement sales volume for Q3 came in at 1.6 million tons, 3.0% higher than estimate, said Al Rajhi Capital, a leading financial services provider in Saudi Arabia, in its earnings report.

While continued growth from mortgages aided volume growth, gross profits and operating income increased by 23.8% y-o-y and 22.8% y-o-y respectively.

Growth in gross profit and operating profits were in line with revenue growth. For the nine months, Saudi Cement registered a volume growth of 9.9% y-o-y.

“Growth was aided by strong momentum in real estate activities in the local market. Going forward, we expect this trend to continue, though growth rates for 2021 will be tempered by the higher base in 2020,” said Al Rajhi Capital in the report.

“Average realisations are likely to come under pressure, given the competitive nature of the local market. We marginally increase our target price to SR65/share from the earlier target price of SR63/share and have increased our rating to Overweight from Neutral,” it added. – TradeArabia News Service