August 29 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian fuel retailer Petrol [BUL:5PET] said on Thursday that it turned to a consolidate net loss of 7.0 million levs ($4.0 million/3.6 million euro) in the first half of 2019 from a net profit of 55.2 million levs in the same period of 2018.
The company's operating revenue fell to 256.1 million levs in the January-June period of 2019 from 298.6 million levs in the comparable period of 2018, Petrol said in an interim financial statement.
Petrol's net profit and revenue in the first half of last year were affected by the sale of its unit Elit Petrol. Petrol booked 54.6 million levs in revenue from operations with financial assets during the first six months of 2018.
The fuel retailer's operating expenses grew to 263.1 million levs in the review period from 243.5 million levs the year before, as cost of goods sold rose to 224.9 million levs from 212.5 million levs.
Petrol's assets increased to 140.8 million levs at the end of June from 130.2 million levs a year earlier.
As at 13:50 CET on Thursday, Petrol shares traded 0.76% lower at 0.655 levs on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.
Petrol operates over 300 fuel stations in Bulgaria.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)