November 1 (SeeNews) - Rompetrol Rafinare (RRC), the refining unit of Romania's second-largest oil group Rompetrol, said on Thursday it doubled its net loss to $12.0 million (8.3 million euro) for the first nine months of 2007 after suffering foreign exchange losses.
RRC shares closed at 0.1170 lei on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) on Thursday, flat on the day. The company released its nine-month financial results after the end of bourse trading.
"The nine-month net result was negatively influenced by unrealised foreign exchange losses of $38.5 million, […] the company suffered losses mainly from FX expenses, due to the EUR/USD exchange rate development," the company said in a statement to the BVB.
RRC's consolidated turnover through September rose 20% on the year, to $2.31 billion. Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reached $125.91 million for the first nine months of 2007, from $95.3 million a year earlier.
In the third quarter alone, RRC had a net loss of $25.23 million from a net profit of $537,000, in the year-ago period.
"Crude oil prices surged to all-time record levels over the course of the third quarter, supported by a number of market factors such as fears of gasoline shortages, declining gasoline and crude oil stocks in the U.S. and weather-related problems on the US Gulf Coast leading to oilfield and refinery shut downs," the company said.
Gross revenues reached $2.3 billion during the first nine months of 2007, 20% higher than last year, supported by larger quantities of petroleum products sold, as well as by higher selling prices.
RRC nine-month financial results sent to BVB (in millions of U.S. dollars):
|
|
9-mo'07 |
9-mo'06 |
| NET PROFIT/LOSS |
-12.036 |
-5.925 |
| EBIT |
82.065 |
50.10 |
| NET REVENUE |
1,823 |
1,547 |
($ = 0.6922 euro)