Exide Pakistan Profits Crash Despite 50% Dividend as Sales Collapse Sharply

KARACHI: Exide Pakistan Limited walked into its annual board meeting on Saturday and handed shareholders a mixed verdict: a 50% cash dividend to sweeten the mood, but financial results that tell a story of a company fighting hard against shrinking revenues and a punishing new levy that ate directly into its bottom line.

The battery maker's board, approved a final cash dividend of Rs. 5 per share for the year ended March 31, 2026, the same Rs. 10-per-share payout shareholders received the previous year, split across periods. No bonus shares, no rights issue. Just cash, and a set of numbers that demand scrutiny.

Exide Pakistan Profit Takes Massive Hit

Net sales collapsed to Rs. 19.6 billion from Rs. 23.9 billion a year earlier a revenue drop of nearly Rs. 4.3 billion that management has yet to publicly explain. Gross profit fell from Rs. 3.87 billion to Rs. 2.73 billion, squeezing margins as cost of sales remained stubbornly elevated at Rs. 16.9 billion despite the steep sales decline.

Then came the kill shot. A revenue levy of Rs. 106.4 million absent entirely from last year's books landed directly between operating profit and the tax line, a new cost the company had no precedent for absorbing. The result: profit before income tax crashed from Rs. 1.04 billion to just Rs. 303 million, a decline of more than 70%.

Also Read: EDB Urged to Cut Lithium Battery Taxes to Make EVs and Solar More Affordable

What saved the headline number from becoming a disaster was a tax credit. Where Exide paid Rs. 426.8 million in net income tax the previous year, it booked a net tax benefit of Rs. 127.8 million in FY2026, a reversal that propped profit after taxation up to Rs. 431.6 million against last year's Rs. 614.4 million. Earnings per share fell from Rs. 79.09 to Rs. 55.57.

Balance Sheet Shows Mixed Signals

The balance sheet tells its own uncomfortable story. Total assets shrank from Rs. 15.25 billion to Rs. 14.12 billion, with stock-in-trade declining sharply from Rs. 7.12 billion to Rs. 5.54 billion signalling either aggressive inventory liquidation or a demand environment that has turned cold. Trade debts also contracted, from Rs. 4.11 billion to Rs. 3.88 billion.

What Lies Ahead for Exide Pakistan

On the liability side, there is genuine improvement. Trade payables nearly halved from Rs. 3.54 billion to Rs. 1.68 billion and the company fully retired its director loan of Rs. 225 million. Short-term borrowings held relatively stable at Rs. 4.6 billion. Equity strengthened to Rs. 7.48 billion, buoyed by a Rs. 316.8 million revaluation surplus on property.

Cash flow, however, remains stressed. The company ended the year with negative cash and cash equivalents of Rs. 1.48 billion, deepening from negative Rs. 1.07 billion the year before.