MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti) – Russian steel giant Novolipetsk Steel’s 2012 US GAAP net profit fell 56 percent year-on-year to $596 million, the company said on Tuesday, citing deteriorating market conditions for steelmakers.
That was below a consensus forecast of analysts polled by Prime news agency, who predicted the company’s net financial result at $739 million.
The company's revenue grew by 4 percent in the reporting period to $12.157 billion, while Earnings Before Interest, Taxation, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) fell by 16 percent to $1.9 billion, with the EBITDA margin down by 3.6 percentage points to 15.6 percent.
The company's net debt grew by 7 percent in 2012 to $3.574 billion while the net debt/EBITDA ratio rose to 1.88 from 1.49 percent.
In the fourth quarter of 2012, the company posted a net loss of $22 million compared with a net profit of $167 million in the third quarter last year. The company’s revenues fell by 7 percent, quarter on quarter, to $2.803 billion while EBITDA plunged 19 percent to $390 million, with the EBITDA margin down 2.2 percentage points to 13.9 percent.
“2012 proved to be a challenging year for the global metals industry: The growth in prices we saw in the first half of the year gave way to a slump in consumption and prices on the back of weak macroeconomic conditions on the developed markets and a slowdown on the developing markets,” Novolipetsk Steel Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer Grigory Fedorishin was quoted as saying.
