Lube Sentiment

Oct 30, 2012 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Chevron Lubriants unit said profits fell 13 percent to 521 million rupees in the September 2012 quarter from a year earlier poor market sentiment and a price hike due to currency depreciation hurting consumption. Revenues grew by a marginal 2.9 percent to 3.0 billion rupees from a year earlier, cost of sales were flat at 2.



0 billion rupees and gross profits fell 8.



6 percent to 929 million rupees.

The firm reported earnings of 4.35 rupees per share for the quarter.

For the nime months to September Chevron Lubricants reported earnings of 14.30 rupees per share on total profits of 1.71 billion rupees.

"The top line was affected due to the lower market consumption while the gross margins were affected by the depreciation of the rupee against US dollar," chief executive Kishu Gomes told shareholders in interim accounts filed with the Colombo Stock Exchange.

Gomes said consumption fell with a steep duty increase in vehicles, a fall in the currency and a price rise to cover higher costs of raw materials.

Sri Lanka's rupee fell from 110 rupees to 134 to the US dollar over the past year after authorities took tens of billions of rupees in loans to manipulate energy prices and accommodated then with cent