February 20 (SeeNews) - Croatian oil and gas company INA [ZSE:INA-R-A] said its consolidated net profit leapt to 1.22 billion kuna ($202.6 million/163.9 million euro) in 2017 from 101 million kuna in 2016 on the back of strong operating results.
Net sales revenues climbed 20% to 18.6 billion kuna last year, while EBITDA exceeded 3.2 billion kuna, a 52% increase on 2016, INA said in a statement filed with the Zagreb bourse on Monday evening.
"In 2017 INA Group posted one of the strongest results in its recent history", Zoltan Aldott, president of the management board said. He added that INA demonstrated its ability to capture the benefit of higher prices.
INA's exploration and production operations benefited from the positive external environment with 24% higher Brent price in 2017. This, together with higher achieved gas prices and a slight increase in domestic on-shore production, contributed to a 42% rise in operating profit to 1.67 billion euro in that sector.
Refining and marketing including retail reported improved financial performance, as INA was able to capture the positive external environment of higher crack spreads and increased total sales volumes. In this area of business, the operating profit surged 155% to 263 million kuna.
Retail sales volumes increased on the back of the network expansion in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a slight economic rebound together with positive development in premium fuels and non-fuel sales, INA explained.
The company noted that its Sisak refinery, which it plans to convert into a logistics center, continued to burden INA’s R&M performance with a negative operating result of 207 million kuna in 2017 after a loss of 264 million kuna in the previous year.
During January, a proposal of organizational changes in Sisak was prepared by the management and submitted to the Workers' Council for consultations. The change will lead to the reduction of the number of employees by up to 40 during the second half of 2018.
Capital expenditures rose 1% to 1.39 billion kuna in 2016.
Starting from the July 1, 2016, Bosnia's Energopetrol was integrated to INA Group retail segment, after it increased its share in the company from 33% to 67%. More recently, at the beginning of 2018, INA boosted its share further to 88.6%.
INA swung to a consolidated net profit of 101 million kuna in 2016, from a net loss of 1.4 billion kuna in 2015, on the back of strong exploration and production results.
(1 euro=7.43880 Croatian kuna)