Fertiglobe, the world’s largest seaborne exporter of urea and ammonia, said its third-quarter net profit more than doubled as it benefitted from a rise in selling prices.
Net profit attributable to shareholders for the three-month period to the end of September climbed to about $291.6 million, from $137.7m recorded a year earlier, the company said on Thursday in a filing to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares are traded.
Adjusted net profit surged 84 per cent to $291.5m.
“We are pleased to report another very solid set of results, driven by a step-up in urea and ammonia prices, supported by tight market balances outweighing the usual seasonal slowdown,” chief executive Ahmed El-Hoshy said.
Revenue in the third quarter rose 52 per cent on an annual basis to $1.32 billion while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation grew 64 per cent, year on year, to $606m.
Fertiglobe, a joint venture between Adnoc and Netherlands-listed OCI, said it had “good visibility” for the fourth quarter and the first half of 2023 as demand picks up in key import markets.
“The outlook for the fundamentals of Fertiglobe’s nitrogen end markets continues to be underpinned by tight supply, healthy farm economics and decades-low grain stocks globally, which incentivise the use of nitrogen fertilisers,” the company said.
Production in the EU, a large supplier of nitrogen fertiliser products, has been curtailed due to a steep drop in Russian natural gas imports.
CF Industries Holdings, the world’s largest nitrogen fertiliser producer, on Wednesday reported a profit, compared with a loss a year ago.
“The conditions that have supported nitrogen prices for the last year … show no signs of abating,” CF Industries Holdings chief executive Tony Will said.
“As a result, we expect the global nitrogen supply-demand balance to remain tight, with attractive margin opportunities for low-cost producers further into the future.”
Fertiglobe, which announced a dividend of $700m for the second half of 2022, said its free cash flow increased to $189m in the third quarter, from $56m a year earlier.
The company seeks to help existing and new clients looking to use hydrogen in the form of ammonia for marine fuels, power generation and other industrial applications, Mr El Hoshy told The National in an interview in January.
When heated to extract hydrogen Ammonia — which is largely used in fertilisers and industrial applications from manufacturing of plastics to textiles and pesticides, automotive and cosmetics — does not produce carbon.
Hydrogen is gaining importance as the fuel of the future and low-carbon hydrogen is deemed essential in decarbonising hard-to-abate industrial sectors including heavy transport in the future.
Last year, Adnoc, Mubadala Investment Company and Abu Dhabi holding company ADQ formed an alliance to develop a global hydrogen centre.
Adnoc subsequently announced plans to build a blue ammonia plant in Ruwais while Abu Dhabi Ports-owned Kizad said it would invest $1bn in a green ammonia plant.
In a separate statement on Thursday, Fertiglobe said it would produce diesel exhaust fuel from its Egyptian Fertilizer Company plant in the fourth quarter, with trial shipments to be marketed by OCI in Europe.
Diesel exhaust fuel is a urea solution used to reduce environmentally harmful vehicle exhaust emissions from diesel engines.
Fertiglobe has the capacity to produce 500,000 tonnes of the fuel at its plants in Egypt and the UAE, it said.
In June, Moody's Investors Service assigned a “Baa3" long-term issuer rating to Fertiglobe, with a stable outlook, while Fitch Ratings allocated a first-time long-term issuer default rating of “BBB”, with a stable outlook.
The company is also rated “BBB-” by S&P Global Ratings.
In October last year, Fertiglobe raised about $795m in its initial public offering amid strong demand from international, regional and local investors.
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Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away
It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
* Agence France Presse
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ELIO
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Engine: 3.5-litre V6
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THE BIO
Ambition: To create awareness among young about people with disabilities and make the world a more inclusive place
Job Title: Human resources administrator, Expo 2020 Dubai
First jobs: Co-ordinator with Magrudy Enterprises; HR coordinator at Jumeirah Group
Entrepreneur: Started his own graphic design business
Favourite singer: Avril Lavigne
Favourite travel destination: Germany and Saudi Arabia
Family: Six sisters
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
