Ghandhara Automobiles has told investors it will spend Rs2.3 billion expanding the paint shop at its Port Qasim plant, after a two-year profit surge that has transformed the assembler of JAC and Dongfeng commercial vehicles. The company laid out the plan in a corporate briefing filed with the Pakistan Stock Exchange for a session on Wednesday, 5 November.
The numbers behind the decision are striking. Group profit after tax reached Rs6.42 billion in the year ended 30 June 2026, up 57 percent on the year before — and more than 17 times the Rs365 million the group earned just two years earlier. On a standalone basis, Ghandhara Automobiles has swung from a Rs258 million loss in FY24 to a Rs3.47 billion profit in FY26.
A Rs2.3 Billion Bet on the Paint Shop
The paint-shop expansion was first announced to the stock exchange on 17 September, at an estimated cost of Rs2.3 billion. Ghandhara Automobiles says the work is already under way: civil works have started, equipment buying has begun, and the company expects to finish before next June. A new robotics topcoat line is part of the plan, aimed at lifting paint quality, productivity and cost efficiency, although the company has not broken out its cost separately.
The investment is a response to capacity pressure. Last year the Port Qasim plant built 11,673 vehicles, up by half from 7,799 the year before, and above its 11,000-unit single-shift capacity — achieved with overtime. The total includes Isuzu trucks and pickups the plant builds on contract for another company. Management also credits savings from its solar plant for part of the margin gain.
Quarter Profits Still Climbing
The momentum has carried into the new financial year. Ghandhara Automobiles reported on 27 October that sales reached Rs15.73 billion between July and September — one-third of what the group sold in all of FY26 — and profit for the quarter came to Rs2.53 billion, up 51 percent on the Rs1.67 billion booked in the same three months of 2025. Earnings per share for the quarter were Rs44.31, already close to 40 percent of last year’s full-year figure. Gross margin hit 23.1 percent for the quarter, against 20.4 percent for full-year FY26, and on a standalone basis it touched 24.9 percent — the highest in the six periods the briefing covers, and triple the FY22 level.
The board has also rewarded shareholders, paying a final cash dividend of Rs12 a share, credited on 21 October — roughly 11 percent of consolidated earnings per share of Rs112.58 for FY26.
Trucks Do the Heavy Lifting
Ghandhara DF, the Dongfeng arm of Ghandhara Automobiles, did much of the lifting. Its revenue climbed 62 percent to Rs19.1 billion, and its profit almost doubled to Rs2.1 billion. Heavy truck sales rose to 1,113 from 710, light commercial sales more than doubled to 1,013, and JAC double-cabin and pickup sales climbed to 3,915 from 3,245. At the parent level, JAC commercial vehicle sales jumped to 2,767 units from 1,472, adding Rs6.2 billion in revenue.
The balance sheet stays light: equity funds 62 percent of Rs21 billion in assets, and debt is only 3 percent. On 19 October, rating agency PACRA lifted Ghandhara Automobiles’ long-term rating to A+ from A. The briefing also comes as the wider market rally has pushed the benchmark index to record territory.
Three Numbers Investors Should Watch
Not everything in the briefing is unambiguously positive. First, customer advances: standalone advances fell by Rs7.04 billion, the main reason current liabilities dropped 54 percent — a shift that raises questions about the pace of new bookings and deliveries, and PACRA noted the working capital cycle lengthened as advances unwound. The company did not disclose its outstanding order backlog.
Second, concentration: one customer generated Rs5.78 billion, or 12.3 percent of group revenue. A year earlier, no buyer crossed the 10 percent line, and the company did not name the customer.
Third, policy: all of the group’s sales come from Pakistan, so management flags duty and tax changes — and growing pressure to shift toward electric vehicles — as risks. But the new auto policy for 2026-31, which won in-principle approval in September, still awaits its formal announcement.
For now, though, the story is one of a company converting a demand recovery into cash and reinvesting it in its plant. For Ghandhara Automobiles, the Rs2.3 billion paint shop is the test of whether that momentum can be sustained once the steep growth of the past two years starts to cool.
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