Bulgaria's MonBat 10-mo Pre-tax Profit Falls 41%, Sees '09 Pre-tax Earnings at 10.1 Mln Euro

Pre-tax profit is seen at 19.8 million levs in 2009 with sales at 125.6 million levs, the company said in a statement.

MonBat closed 2008 with a pre-tax profit of 29.4 million levs and sales of 181 million levs.

Ten-month net sales totalled 95.3 million levs, the statement said.

The company, majority-owned by Bulgarian lubricants producer Prista Oil, has subsidiaries in Romania and Serbia. It exports to Germany, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Romania and Serbia, generating around 85% of its total revenue abroad.

MonBat shares, part of the SOFIX index on the stock exchange in Sofia, fell 0.86% to 6.99 levs in a volume of 793 on Wednesday.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)