KARACHI, Oct 27(Focus Pakistan) — International Packaging Films Ltd added Rs941 million in revenue in the July-September quarter compared with a year earlier, and finished with almost exactly the same profit. Thinner margins swallowed the extra sales.
The IPAK Q1 FY2027 results show the group, which calls itself Pakistan’s largest maker of flexible packaging films, earned Rs704.75 million after tax. A year ago it made Rs704.27 million. Revenue rose 9% to Rs11.13 billion, IPAK told the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
The board declared no dividend, bonus or right shares.
Costs did the damage
Cost of sales climbed almost 13%, outrunning revenue, and gross profit slid nearly 8% to Rs1.62 billion. Gross margin narrowed to 14.5% from 17.2% a year earlier, and well below the 22.3% IPAK posted for fiscal 2026 as a whole.
Other income fell 40% to Rs80.7 million. Operating profit dropped 8.6% to Rs1.31 billion.
Two lines below that kept the bottom line level. Finance costs fell 16% to Rs425 million, while the tax charge declined to Rs177 million from Rs221 million, partly reflecting a swing from deferred tax expense to a tax credit.
Shareholders of the parent still took home less. Profit attributable to IPAK’s owners fell 7% to Rs739 million, and earnings per share slipped to Rs1.01 from a restated Rs1.08.
The gap reflects smaller losses absorbed by minority shareholders. They took on Rs34 million in losses, against Rs91 million a year earlier. IPAK holds 52% of PETPAK Films, its BOPET maker, and owns its other subsidiaries outright, according to the group structure in a corporate briefing it filed with the exchange. If PETPAK accounts for all of the minority share, its loss would have narrowed to roughly Rs72 million from about Rs190 million, by Focus Pakistan’s calculation. The quarterly filing does not provide a subsidiary-level breakdown.
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The parent company on its own did better. Standalone revenue grew 16% to Rs3.42 billion and profit rose 16% to Rs211 million, or Rs0.29 a share. Even there, gross profit fell 9%. Lower interest costs did the heavy lifting.
The flat quarter marks a sharp change of pace. IPAK’s group profit jumped 645% to Rs4.95 billion in fiscal 2026, from Rs664 million the year before. The first quarter of that year alone had shown a 673% rise.
Cash remains tight. Operations generated Rs504 million in cash before finance payments, taxes and other adjustments, reversing a Rs331 million outflow a year earlier. But IPAK paid Rs425 million in finance costs and Rs437 million in income tax and levies, up about 104% from Rs214 million. That left operating cash flow Rs393 million in the red.
The cash-flow statement put cash and cash equivalents at minus Rs1.53 billion, against positive cash and bank balances of Rs768 million on the balance sheet. The quarterly disclosure does not provide the reconciliation. Short-term borrowings rose to Rs8.83 billion from Rs8.25 billion in June.
Customers now owe IPAK Rs10.03 billion, up from Rs9.56 billion three months earlier. That nearly equals a full quarter of group revenue. The company kept spending. It paid Rs313 million for plant and equipment, almost double the Rs168 million a year ago.
The group runs BOPP, CPP and BOPET lines with a combined nameplate capacity of 152,660 tonnes a year, according to the same corporate briefing. That presentation showed PETPAK running at 56% of capacity, the lowest of its plants.
IPAK is also looking beyond Pakistan for growth. The company told the exchange that its Dubai arm, IPAK Connect, plans to establish a subsidiary in Portugal to serve the European Union market.
