EARNINGS WATCH- Leading Automotive player GB Auto has returned to profitability, reporting a net profit after tax of EGP 33.5 mn in 1Q2018 compared to a net loss of EGP 154.5 mn in the same period last year, according to the company’s earnings newsletter (pdf). “We are now more than ever confident that customers have absorbed price increases as we see unit sales making a strong comeback in almost every automotive line of business,” our friend GB Auto CEO Raouf Ghabbour noted. “This quarter we have returned the Auto & Auto Related business to meaningful operating profitability. We’re no longer talking about keeping the business above water, but about how much we can continue to grow going forward as a transformed operation with two distinct business lines.” Citing improving appetite across the company’s product portfolio, Ghabbour said, “we believe our strategy is set to catapult us back to our historical levels of profitability.”