Ljubljana, 24 August (STA) - Slovenia's energy group Petrol saw its half-year net earnings increase by 15% year-on-year to EUR 39.1m as sales revenue rose by 13% to EUR 2.43bn, which the company said was mainly due to higher oil prices.
According to a filing with the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, Petrol Group generated an adjusted gross profit of EUR 209.4m in the first half of the year, a 10% increase on the same period of 2017.
EBITDA, 52% of which derived from sales of petroleum products, rose by 9% year-on-year to EUR 78.8m.
A further 19% of EBITDA was generated from sales of merchandise and related services, 13% from sales of energy and environmental solutions, 7% from sales of liquefied petroleum gas, 5% from sales of other energy sources, and 4% from electricity generation from renewable sources.
Sales of petroleum products rose by 2% y/y to 1.6m tonnes and sales of natural gas totalled 11.1 TWh, which the company said was significantly more than in the first half of last year due to the full consolidation of gas wholesaler Geoplin Ljubljana.
Sales of liquefied petroleum gas rose by 6% to 77,100 tonnes and merchandise sales revenue was up by 12% to EUR 292.8m.
At the end of June, the group operated 495 service stations, of which 317 in Slovenia, 105 in Croatia, 39 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 12 in Serbia, 11 in Montenegro and 11 in Kosovo.
The core company Petrol generated EUR 1.91bn in half-year sales revenue, which compares to EUR 1.79bn in the same period a year ago. Net profit rose to EUR 33.95m, which compares to EUR 26.35m a year ago.