State Trading Organization (STO) has disclosed its financial results for the first quarter of 2024, showing a net profit of MVR 195.0 million. This figure is a 6.8% increase from the previous quarter’s earnings of MVR 182.6 million.
However, the net profit for Q1-2024 has decreased by 27.9% compared to the same period last year when earnings reached MVR 270 million. This shows that STO’s operational landscape has evolved.
As the Maldives’s leading state-owned enterprise, STO’s financial statements provide vital insights into the country’s economic trajectory. STO recorded a Gross Profit of MVR 617.1 million in Q1-2024, which represents a 21.9% decrease from the MVR 791 million reported in Q1-2023.
Similarly, the Profit Before Tax for the review period decreased by 30.5%, dropping from MVR 337.7 million in Q1-2023 to MVR 234.8 million in Q1-2024. Despite these challenges, Gross Profit and Profit Before Tax showed encouraging growth compared to the final quarter of 2023.
Gross Profit for 2024 increased by 18.1% from the preceding quarter, reaching MVR 522.3 million. Additionally, Profit Before Tax surged by 46.0% in the first quarter of this year, standing at MVR 234.8 million compared to MVR 160.8 million in Q4-2023.
The decline in net profit during the review period is primarily due to rising expenditures. STO’s Cost of Sales for Q1-2024 amounted to MVR 3.88 billion, marking a 6.2% increase from MVR 3.65 billion in Q1-2023.
According to STO’s disclosure, fuel-related activities accounted for 83% of the total revenue in the quarter, with the remaining 13% attributed to non-fuel revenue streams.
