Kay & Que's profit climbs 9 times on IT business
Buoyed by the merger with an IT firm, Kay & Que (Bangladesh) has witnessed 981% year-on-year growth in its net profit in the October to December quarter of the current fiscal year.
The consolidated net profit stood at Tk81.59 lakh, and earnings per share (EPS) at Tk1.19 in the final three months of 2023.
In the middle of 2023, the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) allowed Kay & Que – a publicly listed CNG filling station that also sells stones – to merge with MultiSourcing Limited, an IT firm.
According to its officials, the IT unit's profit has been added since August last year, and owing to good profit from the unit, the consolidated profit increased significantly.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
To execute the amalgamation scheme, the company also secured the regulator's nod to issue 17.1 lakh ordinary shares only for the shareholders of MultiSourcing Ltd.
Now, after the acquisition, the paid-up capital of the company has increased to Tk6.86 crore from Tk5.157 crore.
The IT unit of Kay & Que provides multifaceted software, digital solutions, and value-added services.
In addition, it offers quality content, VAS, IVR (interactive voice response) services, text-based services, premier services, GPRS contents, and large-scale enterprise software and hardware turnkey solutions.
After failing to survive in the carbon rod, coal tar, and pesticide business, the management of the company decided to diversify its business in February 2022.
The company ceased its previous activities in the manufacturing of carbon rods, coal tar, and pesticides. Now, it operates its CNG and IT units.
According to its annual reports, the company closed the carbon rod unit because its original supplier of carbon rod factories shut down. Consequently, it could not obtain spare parts from the supplier, and alternatives were not available from other sources.
As a result, the quality of the carbon rods deteriorated over time, leading to losses, and the management was compelled to close the carbon rod unit.
It opened the coal tar unit as a byproduct of unit 1 in 2002. However, due to a drastic fall in demand in the Bangladeshi market and a lack of significant marketing networks and distribution channels, the operation of the coal tar unit was also terminated.
Additionally, the pesticide unit was closed for similar reasons.
