State Trading Organisation (STO) posted a net profit of MVR 195 million in the first quarter of this year, the company said in its financial statements.

STO posted a revenue of MVR 4.5 billion in the first quarter of this year, according to the company's financial statements released yesterday. That's a 12 percent increase over the last quarter of last year.

The main reason for the increase in total revenue was the increase in oil sales and improvement in other businesses.

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.