| The holding's profit last year reached $4 billion LUKOIL continues to bombard the market with positive news. Immediately after the end of the New Year holidays, the company released a report according to US GAAP standards for 9 months of the past year, which turned out to be better than investment analysts expected. And yesterday the LUKOIL board of directors summed up the results of the past year, according to which the country's largest oil company earned $4 billion in net profit. As a result, the holding's shares, which had fallen in price in the first half of the day, began to grow, although according to the results of trading on the RTS, their prices did not rise very significantly - by 0.85% to $27.9, but at the same time the shares of most other Russian companies became cheaper.
LUKOIL's net profit according to US GAAP standards for 9 months amounted to $3.095 billion, and over the last three months the company managed to earn almost another $1 billion. Profit at the end of the year will be 60% higher than in 2003 (excluding the sale of a 10% stake in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli project). “The result that the company hopes to get is slightly higher than market expectations,” says Sovlink Securities analyst Lev Snykov, “although after the publication of GAAP for 9 months, many investors adjusted their forecasts.” At the same time, in its official statement, the holding notes that, despite favorable market conditions, almost the entire increase in export revenue, obtained due to an increase in the price of Urals oil by more than $25 per barrel, was withdrawn to the budget.
According to preliminary data, LUKOIL increased oil production in 2004 by 5.8%, to 86.3 million tons. Of these, 82.8 million tons were produced in Russia. Gas production in 2004 increased by 8.9% and exceeded 6.2 billion cubic meters. The resulting increase in reserves is approximately 1.3 times higher than the volume of oil and gas produced. Previously, LUKOIL stated that the annual increase in oil production would be about 5%.
In addition, yesterday the company reported that LUKOY had increased its share in the capital of the oil refinery in the Bulgarian Burgas to 93.16%. The holding acquired 58% of NPH in 1999, and controls another 13% through affiliated structures. The company has repeatedly stated that it is interested in increasing its stakes in subsidiaries to 100%. And on December 10, a 100% subsidiary of LUKOIL - LUKOIL Europe Holdings BV - announced a tender for the purchase of a 29% stake in the enterprise in Burgas. True, the holding failed to gain full control over the enterprise - it was able to buy out only 22% of the shares. Denis REBROV |
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