PTT Net Q1 Income $124 Million

PTT, Thailand's largest oil company, released earnings for 2001 for the first time, indicating that first quarter profit fell by seventeen percent in 2002 on declining sales and product prices. PTT yesterday posted a net income of 5.32 billion baht ($124 million), without giving earnings for the same period in 2001. Today, it said that first quarter 2002 profit was 6.43 billion baht and sales were 95.3 billion baht, five percent more than in 2001. The government backed PTT turned itself into a corporation at the beginning of October in preparation for its November initial public offering. It raised $726 million in Thailand's largest first share sale. “Oil prices are the key,” to PTT earnings, said Vikas Kawatra, head of institutional research at Kim Eng Securities. Crude oil prices fell eighteen percent to $21.10 a barrel in the first quarter from the same period last year.

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