Hello, and welcome to the Qatar Fuel Company WOQOD Conference Call. I would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded. Thank you. I'd now like to welcome Roy Thomas to begin the conference. Roy, over to you.
Thanks, Kevin. Hello, everyone. This is Roy Thomas from QNB Financial Services. I want to welcome everyone to Qatar Fuel Company, WOQOD's Q2 and first half 2024 financial results conference call. On this call from WOQOD, we have Sultan Jassim Al-Maadeed, the Acting Chief Financial Officer, and Ahmed Saeed Al-Mansoori, the IR Officer. We will conduct this conference call with management first reviewing the company's results, followed by Q&A. I will turn the call now over to Ahmed Saeed Al-Mansoori. Go ahead, Ahmed.
Thank you, Roy. Good day to all the participants, and we hope everyone is keeping safe and healthy. We welcome you all to WOQOD's Q2 and June 2024 results conference call, and appreciate your participation as WOQOD is committed to continuously enhance its investor relation initiatives. This is to strengthen our communication and improve transparency with all members of the global investment community. The presentation of this call will be available on the investor relations section of our website. Any statement that refers to expectations, projections, guidance, or any other characterizations of future events, including financial projections or future market conditions, is a forward-looking statement based on the assumptions today. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements. The company cannot disclose any commercially sensitive information due to the confidentiality agreement signed with suppliers.
Please refer to slide number 2 for the full version of the claim statements. All figures expressed in this call are in Qatari riyals, and the conversion for the same to US dollars is QAR 3.64 to $1. Now, I would like to hand over the call to our finance manager, Mr. Sultan Jassim Al-Maadeed, to provide a brief overview of WOQOD and update on the key operation activities.
Thank you, Ahmed. The key vision of WOQOD is to be the leading petroleum product distribution and related service marketing company in the region. I am on slide 4 now, which shows the overview of WOQOD Group. WOQOD started operation in 2002, with an exclusive right for storage and distribution of petroleum products in the state of Qatar. Operation started with two petrol stations in 2003, and has grown to 126 stations at the end of June 2024. The chart on the right shows WOQOD's station network. WOQOD also owns and operates 13 FAHES centers for inspection of vehicles across the state of Qatar. I am on slide 5 now, which shows the key operations of WOQOD Group.
The key operation of WOQOD Group are diesel and gasoline fuel distribution and sales, jet fuel distribution and sales, shore-to-ship and ship-to-ship bunkering, LPG distribution and sales, natural gas distribution and sales, fuel bunkering, bitumen operation, C- store and Auto Care activities, the vehicle inspection, and office lease. Turning to slide 7 now, which shows the diesel and gasoline fuel sales volume trend analysis. As mentioned before, the core activity of WOQOD is fuel distribution and sales in the state of Qatar. Total fuel sales higher by 3% during first half 2024 versus the same period of 2023, driven by market demand. Diesel sales volume were lower by 1% in first half 2024 versus first half of 2023, driven by macroeconomic factors.
Combined gasoline sales volume were up by 6% first half 2024 versus first half 2023, driven by market demand. On quarter-on-quarter basis, diesel sales increased by 2% and gasoline sales volume remained stable. Average fuel price were stable during the reporting period. Turning to slide 8, which shows the jet fuel sales volume comparison. Jet fuel sales were higher by 16% in first half 2024 compared to the same period last year, driven by market demand. On quarter-on-quarter basis, jet fuel sales volume for Q2 2024 increased by 3%, driven by market demand. Jet fuel prices for first half 2024 decreased by 3% as compared to the same period last year, driven by changes in crude prices, crude oil prices.
Combined, sales volume of all petroleum products increased by 10% for first half 2024, as compared to the same period last year. Turning to slide now, which shows the quarterly trend of retail fuel sales volume trend. Overall, retail volume increased by 4% for first half 2023 against same period of last year, driven by increased market demand. Retail diesel sales increased by 2%, while the retail gasoline sales increased by 4% during the first half 2024, as compared to the same period of last year, driven by market demand. On quarter-on-quarter basis, retail fuel volume in Q2 2024 decreased by 3% and 1% for diesel and gasoline, respectively. The market share of WOQOD in the petroleum retail market in the State of Qatar reached about 85% during first half of 2024.
Non-fuel retail sales decreased by 8% during first half of 2024, driven mainly by decrease in APC. Turning to slide 11 now, which shows the revenue trend of WOQOD. Revenue from fuel sales accounted for nearly 97% of the total revenue. WOQOD achieved total revenue of QAR 7.1 billion during Q2 of 2024, as compared to the six point four eight billion during the same period last year, showing an increase of 10%. An increase is mainly driven by increase in overall fuel sales volume by 10% in the first half of 2024, as compared to the same of last year. As compared to Q1 of 2024, the total revenue increased by 4%, mainly due to increase of sales volume by 2%.
Turning to slide 12, which shows the net income trend analysis. WOQOD has made a net income of QAR 239 million for the Q2 of 2024, as compared to 217 million riyal during the same period in 2023, representing an increase of 10%. On a quarter-over-quarter basis, net income for Q2 2024 decreased by 2%. Detailed analysis of net income variance is given in the next slide. Turning to slide 13, which shows the key variance analysis of net income for the first half of 2024, as compared to the same period of last year. The increase in net income of QAR 42 million is due to the following major factors: Fuel segment margin increase, driven by increase in fuel sales volume.
The stock price improvements is mainly driven by lower jet fuel prices. Impact in first half of 2024, as compared to the first half of 2023. B2B segment margin decreased, mainly due to lower offtake from B2B segment, and impact of lower bitumen sales due to prevailing market conditions. Non-fuel margin and others were lower due to lower income from non-fuel segment, due to prevailing market condition. Higher depreciation, driven by asset additions. Other income increases, mainly due to higher interest income, driven by optimization efforts and return of cash. WOQOD's fundamentals continue to remain robust, and WOQOD is committed to meet all its strategic goal, while placing safety as top priority. WOQOD has a strong leadership committed toward delivering the results to the shareholder. With this, we are ready for the Q&A session.
Thank you.
If you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. That is star one if you wish to ask a question. And your first question comes to line of Rob Skipper from Ashmore. Your line is open.
Hi. Hi, good morning. Thanks for the, thanks for the update today. Can I just ask on the B2B segment, how much of that was, of that decline year-on-year is related to the bitumen sales? And, like, when you look at the bitumen market now, have things troughed or are things still deteriorating?
Well, my apologies, the question is very clear from... It's not very clear from our end. But I reckon, you're asking about what is the reduction in the bulk segment, and is it, what's the forecast of it? Am I correct?
Yeah.
Okay. So the reduction is 6%, and the market en route to recovery. We don't see it going down, down, downtrend.
Got it. Got it. Great. And then I just wanted to ask about the dividend. So you've announced the interim dividend. Did you have any comments on, like, what that signals, and is that a permanent change?
We announced dividend QAR 0.4 per share. Dividend payout ratio of 83%, and that has been announced. No change will take place.
Great. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from line of Zohaib Pervez of Al Rayan Investment. Your line is open.
Thank you for the presentation. I've got a couple of questions. First is, you've shown that your trading stock price variance is actually positive. But if I look at, you know, your prices for your different products, it seems, you know, all of them are lower or flat. I mean, the diesel, gasoline prices are flat, jet fuel is actually lower, and bitumen, you yourself said it's lower. So what is leading to these gains in your trading stock price movements? That's my first question. The second question is on your fixed deposits, where you are earning quite a chunky return, which has, you know, really positively impacted the financials.
What is the tenor and what is the, what is the tenor for these fixed investments and the rate that you are currently, profit rate that you're currently earning? Thank you.
... Yeah, for the first question, the prices went down, but not as severely as compared to last year. In terms of the second question, my apology, I cannot answer that question. These are confidential information.
Okay. Thank you. One other thing, as you introduced Sultan as being the acting CFO, has there been a change in management? Has Pradeep left and you've become, you know, the acting CFO?
No. Actually, Pradeep is on annual leave.
Annual leave. Okay. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. That is star one if you wish to ask a question. And your next question comes on the line of Hilda Kaza from HSBC. Your line is open.
Yes. Hi, this is Hilda Kaza from HSBC. Just a quick question. Can you tell us anything about the performance of the B2B business so far in the Q3 , since we are sort of in the middle of... Not the middle, but, you know, we passed July and in August already. Have you seen any signs of improvement year-on-year or as the same? Thank you.
Well, the way I see it, honestly, in terms of, the B2B, it is en route, as stipulated earlier, it is en route to recovery. I don't, we don't forecast it's gonna go, lower than what it has reached.
Okay.
Your next question comes from the line of Aashish Agarwal from TFI. Your line is open.
Hello, gentlemen. Can you provide us an update on government subsidies on petrol?
That's not within our domain.
Okay. All right.
Hi, Roy. We just wanted to note that, we'll have one last question before we end the call. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. There are no further questions at this time, so I'd like to hand back to Roy.
All right. If there are no further questions, we'd like to thank WOQOD's management for the results update and answering all the queries, and we look forward to speaking to you all for the Q3 , 2024 results. Thank you very much.
Thank you, everyone, for attending. Hope to see you next quarter.