November 18 (SeeNews) - Slovenian fuel retailer Petrol [LJE:PETG] said on Friday its consolidated net profit jumped 18% year-on-year to 57.2 million euro ($60.6 million) in the first nine months of 2016.
EBITDA totalled 110.0 million euro, an 8% increase compared to the same period of 2015, and was mostly generated from sales of oil products and merchandise.
Consolidated net sales revenues dropped 5% to 2.71 billion euro through September, Petrol said in a filing with the Ljubljana bourse.
"The Petrol Group operates in a competitive environment influenced by oil price fluctuations, global and domestic economic developments, and national laws governing the pricing of energy products. Slovenia's economic situation is improving, but Croatia and other SE Europe countries which are part of Petrol's sales market still face extremely tough economic conditions, low purchasing power, high unemployment and lack of payment discipline", Petrol said.
In the first nine months of 2016, Petrol sold 2.3 million tonnes of petroleum products, up 11% from the same period of 2015. In Slovenia, the nine-month sales of petroleum products rose 6% on the year to 1.1 million tonnes, or 50% of the Petrol Group's total sales.
In the same period, the Group sold 556,000 tonnes of petroleum products in SEE markets, down 6% on the year and representing 24% of total sales. A share of 26% or 597,100 tonnes was sold on EU markets, representing a jump of 47% compared to 2015.
The Petrol Group also sold 105,200 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas, a year-on-year increase of 83%, and 54,200 tonnes (77.3 million m3) of natural gas, down 3% from the comparative period last year.
In addition, Petrol's electricity sales jumped 16% on the year to 11.8 TWh in the first nine months, while the sale of heat increased 3% to 83,400 MWh.
In the first nine months of 2016, net investments in property, plant and equipment, intangible assets and long-term investments totalled 47.3 million euro, up 1% on the year.
At the end of September, the Petrol Group operated 485 service stations, of which 314 were in Slovenia, 105 in Croatia, 36 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 9 in Serbia, 10 in Montenegro and 11 in Kosovo.
Petrol's share price stood at 310.10 euro, up 1.32%, at 10.26 a.m. CET.
($=0.9441 euro)