By Nidaa Bakhsh
Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Petroplus Holdings AG, Europe’s largest independent oil refiner, rose the most since January in Zurich trading after second-quarter profit beat estimates.
Petroplus gained 10 percent to 19.85 Swiss francs as of 12:35 p.m. local time. That values the Zug, Switzerland-based company at 1.35 billion francs ($1.26 billion).
“Operating results were markedly above our expectations, mainly due to higher throughput rates and improved cost control,” Martin Schreiber, an analyst at Zuercher KantonalBank in Zurich, said today in an e-mail. “The company provided a rather positive outlook in the short term,” said Schreiber, who has an “overweight” rating on the stock.
Petroplus net income declined 68 percent to $205 million in the quarter from $638.6 million a year earlier, beating the $161.5 million median estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The results were helped by “reliable refinery operations” and reduced oil inventories, which offset lower margins from fuels such as diesel, it said in a statement.
“We continue to adjust our overall run rates to optimize on the current refining market economics,” Chief Executive Officer Robert Lavinia said in the statement.
The company will reduce operations at its BRC refinery in Antwerp, Belgium, by about 50 percent in the third quarter to 50,000 to 60,000 barrels a day, compared with overall capacity of 110,000 barrels, it said in a Web site presentation. The company will also cut production at Swiss and French sites.
Idle Refineries
The recession has reduced consumer spending and eroded demand for fuels such as gasoline and diesel. Refiners including France’s Total SA and Spain’s Repsol YPF SA have cut operating rates at some plants and closed others temporarily.
Petroplus’s Cressier plant in Switzerland will process 50,000 to 60,000 barrels a day this quarter, according to the presentation. Cressier has a daily processing capacity of 68,000 barrels.
The French Petit Couronne refinery will run at 100,000 to 110,000 barrels a day, while the Reichstett facility, also in France, will operate at 60,000 to 70,000 barrels a day. Petroplus bought the plants from Royal Dutch Shell Plc in 2007.
Petit Couronne can process about 154,000 barrels a day, according to the company’s Web site. Reichstett can handle 85,000 barrels a day.
Petroplus ended the quarter with about $300 million in cash and “no short-term borrowings under our working capital facility,” Chief Financial Officer Karyn Ovelmen said in the statement. That was an increase of $625 million from the first quarter, driven by a decline in inventory.
The table below shows planned rates at Petroplus’s refineries in the third quarter and in the full year, in thousands of barrels a day, according to the presentation.
Refinery 3Q 2009 2009
Coryton, U.K. 170-180 145-155
BRC, Belgium 50-60 70-80
Petit Couronne, France 100-110 100-110
Ingolstadt, Germany 95-105 95-105
Reichstett, France 60-70 60-70
Cressier, Switzerland 50-60 50-60
Major maintenance shutdowns
2009 2010 Period
Coryton 40-50 days Early Q4
BRC 40-45 days Mid Q2
Ingolstadt 35-40 days Early Q4
Reichstett 35-40 days Early Q2
Cressier 35-40 days Early Q2
To contact the reporter on this story: Nidaa Bakhsh in London at nbakhsh@bloomberg.net
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment