Unipetrol Q4 loss deepens on shutdown and fire

29 February 2008 11:06 [Source: ICIS news]

Unipetrol PRAGUE (ICIS news)--Unipetrol on Friday posted an operating loss of koruna (Kc) 657m ($39.7m/€26.1m) for the fourth quarter of last year after absorbing the impact of tightening margins and charges related to extensive planned and unplanned shutdowns exacerbated by a fire.

A company spokeswoman said that without the one-off charges the Czech group would have recorded an operating profit of Kc840m.

The group’s full-year operating profit for 2007 came in 28% up at Kc4.8bn, on revenues that fell 5% to koruna 88.8bn.

Analysts had widely expected the quarterly operating loss to come in at around half the Kc657m posted but the impact of the outages proved worse than anticipated.

Unipetrol, majority-owned by Poland's PKN Orlen, which also reported its results, said the shutdowns - initially caused by a scheduled upgrade but prolonged by the fire - cost it some Kc1.6bn.

The fire in October damaged the hydrogen unit of Unipetrol's Litvinov refinery in the Czech Republic leading to the shutdown of ammonia, urea, oxo-alcohols, polyethylene and polypropylene units.

Unipetrol also recorded an operating loss - of Kc787m, attributed to one-off charges - in the last quarter of 2006.

Revenues for the final quarter of 2007 stood at Kc21.1bn, 3% down on the same period the previous year.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) edged up 3% year on year to Kc227m.

Czech financial group Ceska Sporitelna is maintaining a buy rating on Unipetrol’s stock, arguing that the upgrade shutdown along with a three-year restructuring project has produced new capacity and more efficient operations that should lift profits in the longer term.

($1 = Kc16.53/€1 = Kc25.15)

By: Will Conroy
+44 20 8652 3214

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