Slovenian Fuel Retailer Petrol Jan-Sept Group Gross Profit Falls 4.3% to 200 Mln Euro

Group net profit totalled 19.1 million euro through September with third-quarter net profit at 10.4 million euro, Petrol said in a statement to the Ljubljana Stock Exchange (LJSE). No comparative figures were immediately available.

"In the first nine months of 2009, the Petrol Group’s business environment was characterised by the financial crisis and acceleration of economic recession. In addition to this, the competitive position of Slovene oil traders was affected by the level of excise duty, higher than in the majority of our neighbouring countries," the statement said.

The Petrol Group sold 1.7 million tonnes of oil products in the first nine months of 2009, down 10% from the same period of the previous year and 3% below plan. It also sold 64.7 million cubic metres of natural gas and 34,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas through September, up 2% from the same period of the previous year and 11% above plan. The company provided no sales revenue figures.

In the first nine months of 2009, the Petrol Group operated 430 filling stations, of which 312 in Slovenia, 70 in Croatia, 40 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, three in Serbia, four in Kosovo and one in Montenegro.

Petrol shares, part of the blue-chip SBITOP index of the LJSE, closed 1.45% down at an average price of 340.84 euro on Thursday.

($=0.6668 euro)