With global economy slump, can the company be able to make it in Q2 too?

AmeriGas Partners, a retail propane distributor in the US, has reported a net income of $124 million for the first fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2008, compared to $54.3 million for the same period of 2007.

The partnership’s earnings before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) was $164.1 million for the first quarter of 2009 compared to $93.1 million for the same period of 2007.

The company has reported that revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2008 decreased to $727.1 million from $748.2 million in the same period of 2007, reflecting lower average selling prices due to a decline in product costs. For the three months ended December 31, 2008, retail propane volumes sold were 278.2 million gallons, unchanged from the prior year period.

Eugene Bissell, CEO of AmeriGas, the general partner of AmeriGas Partners, said: “Higher unit margins driven by lower wholesale propane product costs, and colder weather, yielded first quarter results.”

AmeriGas Partners is a retail propane marketer, claims to serve nearly 1.3 million customers from nearly 600 locations in 46 states.  UGI Corporation, through subsidiaries, owns 44% of the Partnership and the public owns the remaining 56%.