November 14 (SeeNews) - Romanian gas transmission company Transgaz [BSE:TGN] said on Tuesday that its net profit rose 21% to 433.5 million lei ($109 million/93 million euro) in the first nine months of 2017.
Operating revenues rose 5% to 1.3 billion lei during in the January-September period, mainly due to higher capacity booking revenues and higher volumes of transmitted gas, Transgaz said in its third quarter financial report citing preliminary figures.
Operating costs edged down by an annual 1% to 812 million lei in the nine months through September.
In the first nine months of the year, the natural gas volume transmitted amounted to 9.21 billion cubic metres, some 1.11 billion cubic meters more than in January-September 2016.
Transgaz ended 2016 with a net profit of 595.7 million lei, up 22% year-on-year.
In October, the European Investment Bank (EIB) said it is lending 50 million euro ($59 million) to Transgaz for the first phase of the EU-backed Bulgaria-Hungary-Romania-Austria (BRUA) gas pipeline project. In September 2016, Transgaz received a 179.4 million euro grant from the European Commission for the same project.
In mid-September, Romania's government, which is Transgaz's majority shareholder, requested that the company to distribute 171 million lei in special dividend for 2016. The Romanian state owns 58.5% of Transgaz, while the remainder is in free float on the BVB.
Transgaz shares traded 0.26% higher at 386 lei on the BVB as at 1325 CET on Tuesday.
(1 euro=4.6495 lei)