Serbian NIS net profit jumps 22pc

BELGRADE: Serbian oil firm NIS posted a 22 percent rise in full-year net profit to 49.5 billion dinars ($592.9 million) on the back of efficiency measures and higher output.

Kirill Kravchenko, chief executive of the group which is majority owned by Russia's Gazprom Net, said the results were the company's best ever.

"We managed to increase profitability, while reducing the level of bank debt," Kravchenko said.

"The financial results for 2012 showed that the year was the most successful since NIS was established."

He said earnings had been boosted by improved efficiency, cost-cutting measures and by expanding its share of the local crude oil and derivatives market.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA) rose 27 percent to 66.5 billion dinars and its total debt to banks stood at $403 million by year end, 10 percent below the previous year and giving a debt to EBIDTA ratio of 0.45 percent.

Kravchenko said output had risen 11 percent to 1,694 tonnes of oil equivalent. At the same time, crude oil refining volume amounted to 2.1 million tonnes, down from 2.3 million in 2011.

Shares in NIS, which almost doubled its investments last year to 50.8 billion dinars, were trading 10 percent higher at 856 dinars.

Under a 2009 energy pact between Russia and Serbia, Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of gas export monopoly Gazprom, paid 400 million euros for a 51 percent stake in NIS. It raised its holding to 56.15 percent in 2011 for another 40.3 million euros.