Alba books a profit above $1 billion in nine months of 2022, with comprehensive income growing 51% Y-o-Y

Aluminium Bahrain B.S.C. (Alba), one of the world’s leading aluminium companies headquartered in the Middle East, has announced the third quarter and nine months results ended September 30, 2022. As per the report, Alba has booked a profit of BD48 million (US$127.6 million) for the third quarter of 2022 – 62 per cent less than BD125.9 million (US$335 million) in Q3 2021. But its profit in the entire first nine months of the year reflected an increase of 39.2 per cent Y-o-Y, amounting to above US$1 billion for the second year in a row. The nine-month profit was reported at BD376.7 million (US$1,001.9 million) compared to BD270.7 million (US$720 million) a year ago.

Alba’s total comprehensive income in the first nine months of 2022 also stood higher than a year ago from BD275.5 million (US$732.7 million) to BD416.1 million (US$1,106.6 million) despite a decrease in the September quarter. From BD126.4 million (US$336.1 million) in Q3 2021, Alba’s quarterly income plunged 54 per cent to BD58.2 million (US$154.8 million) this year.

The company’s Basic and Diluted Earnings per Share was fils 34 in Q3 2022 versus Basic and Diluted Earnings per Share of fils 89 for the same period in 2021. That reflected a downfall of 49.8 per cent Y-o-Y.  However, in nine-month period, Alba’s Basic and Diluted Earnings per Share was higher than a previous year at fils 266 versus fils 191 for the same period in 2021.

Amid the overall downtrend in quarterly financial results, Alba reported a 3.7 per cent rise in revenue from BD388.9 million (US$1,034.2 million) in Q3 2021 to BD403.2 million (US$1,072.3 million) in Q3 2022. In nine months, it totalled at BD1,378.5 million (US$3,666.2 million) compared to BD1,061.5 million (US$2,823.1 million) - up by 29.9 per cent Y-o-Y.

Alba’s total assets at the end of September 2022 stood at BD2,729.8 million (US$7,260.1 million), already up by 4 per cent from BD2,624.6 million (US$6,980.3 million) at the end of December 2021.

Bottom-line in the third quarter as well as in nine months of 2022 could be attributed to the onset of recession following the COVID-19 pandemic and outbreak of Ukraine-Russia geo-political conflict leading to steep increase in energy prices and global inflation. Top-line was due to the rise in demand by 8 per cent Y-o-Y supported by higher consumption in UAE (+17% YoY) & Bahrain (+3% YoY).

Alba’s production grew 3 per cent Y-o-Y to 404,578 tonnes in Q3 2022 and 2 per cent to 1,192,171 tonnes in nine months. But sales volume registered a flat growth for both Q3 and nine months, totalling 366,292 tonnes and 1,108,950 tonnes, respectively.