Hungary : MOL Posts Q2 Profit

Net income rose to 178.5 billion forint ($950 million) from 114.7 billion forint a year earlier, Mol said  in a statement. The median profit
estimate of nine analysts was 134.9 billion forint. Operating profit fell to 78.8 billion forint from 89.1 billion forint, missing analysts’ median forecast of 85.3 billion forint.    
 
“The operating environment is set to remain tough in the remainder of the year,” Chief Financial Officer Jozsef Molnar  said. “Such industry-level crises as the current one usually last about two years, and we’re only at the end of the first year.”
 
The forint firmed 10 percent against the euro and 15 percent against the dollar in the second quarter, lowering the value of the company’s foreign-currency debt and mitigating the negative impact of the recession on energy demand.    
 
Operating profit from refining and marketing fell to 41.2 billion forint from 69 billion forint, Mol said, citing a “deteriorating external
environment.”  Results were positively influenced by inventory revaluation totaling 35.8 billion forint. Molnar expects a “slight improvement” in refining margins in the second half of the year, mostly due to stronger diesel margins, he said.
 
Operating profit from exploration and production fell by 50 percent to 15.2 billion forint from 30.6 billion a year earlier as a result of lower gas prices, a stronger forint and declining production volumes.  “As a result of ongoing investments at Mol and Ina, production volumes could increase slightly by 2011-2012,” Molnar said. Ina Industrija Nafte d.d.  is Mol’s Croatian unit.      Mol’s net income still “improves the equity side and therefore helps reduce net debt,” KBC’s Tordai said.
 
MOL had 1,098 petrol stations at the end of June, 78 more than twelve months earlier. It had 363 stations in Hungary, 209 in Slovakia, 208 in Italy and 135 in Romania.

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