Russian gas monopoly Gazprom yesterday reported a 9 per cent increase in net profit for the first nine months of 2004, beating analysts' forecasts.
Net profit at the world's largest gas producer rose to 137.9 billion roubles (€3.8 billion) for the period to end-September on sales that gained 14 per cent to 683.3 billion roubles, compared with the same period in 2003.
Operating costs jumped 19 per cent to 494.8 billion roubles, mainly because of changes in natural resources tax law, the firm said.
Gazprom is in the middle of a stalled merger with Russian state oil firm Rosneft, which analysts say risks distracting it from important commercial projects.
The merger was intended to give the state a majority holding in Gazprom - it now has 38.37 per cent - triggering permission for foreigners to own Gazprom shares for the first time.
But the deal ground to a halt after Rosneft bought Yuganskneftegaz, a key unit of crippled oil firm Yukos. A US bankruptcy court had earlier barred Gazprom from buying the unit.
The funding for Rosneft's €7.2 billion acquisition of Yugansk is still unclear, but Russia's Kommersant newspaper said in December Gazprom had bought assets from Rosneft for €1.3 billion, enabling it to put down the deposit for the purchase.
Gazprom did not mention Yukos in its results, but a note to the accounts said it had paid 44 billion roubles of surplus cash to acquire securities of oil and gas companies.
Gazprom also said it had bought 5.2 per cent of Russia's electricity monopoly United Energy System (UES) in January 2004, a stake which it said had a fair value of 18.677 billion roubles at September 30th, 2004.
Gazprom's total sales of gas by volume rose to 370.3 billion cubic metres (bcm) from 347.0 bcm, with the rise mainly in the former Soviet Union. Gazprom's net debt stood at 492.2 billion roubles as of September 30th, 2004, up from 425.9 billion roubles at year-end 2003.
