Romania's Transgaz Raises '09 Net Profit Fcast by 1.4% to 313.9 Mln Lei (74 Mln Euro)

Transgaz's net profit rose by 6.7% to 239 million lei last year.

The company revised mainly the personnel expenses, lowering them by 2.6% from the previous forecast to 287.6 million lei, following the limitation of social expenses including tickets for treatment and other benefits for employees to 3.4 million lei from 10.2 million, Raiffeisen Capital and Investment (RCI) said in a statement, following Transgaz’ budget revision announcement.

“We note that the company has not revised the other Profit&Loss items, like revenues and other operating costs […] Thus in our view the revised net profit does not provide an indication on the results of 2009,” RCI added.

Transgaz (www.transgaz.ro) is a component of the blue-chip index of the Bucharest bourse. Its shares last traded 3.05% up at 158.7 lei by 1106 GMT on Wednesday.

(1 euro = 4.2473 Romanian lei)