November 29 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian fuel retailer Petrol [BUL:5PET] said on Thursday that it turned to a consolidated net profit of 61 million levs ($35.4 million/31.2 million euro) in the first nine months of the year from 6.9 million levs in the same period of 2017, thanks to the sale of its unit Elit Petrol.
Petrol gained 54.6 million levs from operations with financial assets during the review period, up from just 392,000 levs in the comparable period of 2017, according to figures from the company's interim financial statement.
In March, Petrol sold Elit Petrol and at the same time acquired Elit Petrol's wholly owned subsidiary Varna Storage.
Petrol's total operating revenue grew to 459.6 million levs in the nine months through September from 359.9 million levs the year before. Sales revenue increased to 403.7 million levs in the period under review from 359.2 million levs a year earlier.
The fuel retailer's total operating expenses rose to 398.7 million levs in January-September compared to 366.8 million levs in the corresponding period of 2017.
Petrol operates over 300 fuel stations in Bulgaria.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)