Bulgarian Car Battery Maker MonBat Doubles 8-mo Pre-Tax Profit to 10.6 Mln Euro

January-August sales revenue rose to 120.5 million levs, MonBat said in a statement. In August alone the company raised its net sales revenue by 40% to 15 million levs and its pre-tax profit was 2.9 million levs, up some 45% year-on-year, MonBat said.

The company has said it expects 24 million levs in pre-tax profit through September and sales revenue of around 137 million levs.

It had a pre-tax profit of 12.4 million levs for the first nine months of 2007, when net sales revenue was 84.9 million levs.

Exports generate about 85% of MonBat's revenue. The company's foreign markets include Germany, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Romania and Serbia.

Shares of MonBat, part of the benchmark SOFIX index, fell 2.0% to 9.8 levs with over 32,000 stocks changing hands on Thursday. The statement was released after the end of bourse trading.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)