Pryce Corp. reported a 57 percent rise in net profits from January to September 2016 following the continuous surge in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales in the third quarter of the year.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the company’s net earnings in the nine-month period amounted to P712.48 million, versus their P453.17 million net profit from last year.

This means a P0.3561 earnings per share or around 10x price to earnings ratio in the nine-month period.

The rise followed a strong sales volume growth of LPGs, the company’s main product line that grew 31 percent to 135,939 metric tons (MT) from 103,769 MT.

LPG sales accounted 90 percent of revenues for the nine-month period. This drove consolidated revenues to expand by 14.9 percent to P4. 74 billion despite the downtrend of LGPs in the global market.

“Strong sales volume growth further countered the effects of an almost 15 percent drop in average selling price enabling the Group to register growth in revenues all the same,” Pryce said.

The company is confident that it will meet its P900 million income target by end – year.

“With the fourth quarter of the year typically the strongest in terms of LPG sales, the Group’s target income of P900 million ‘plus or minus 10 percent’ would be well within reach,” Pryce said.