MOSCOW (MRC) -- Russia’s largest petrochemicals company, Sibur, suffered an almost 8% drop in net income last year to 110.8 billion roubles (USD1.7 billion), it said, citing currency weakness and a disposal that had boosted the previous year’s numbers, as per Reuters.
The weaker rouble, which increases debt held in other currencies, helped to lift Sibur’s net debt to 317.6 billion roubles, up by 20 percent from 2017.
Sibur has been preparing an initial public offering (IPO) that could raise as much as USD3 billion.
Businessman Leonid Mikhelson, the head of and a major shareholder in Russia’s largest gas producer Novatek, owns 48.5 percent of Sibur, which is the largest petrochemicals producer in Eastern Europe.
The company said 2018 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose last year by a quarter to 201 billion roubles, a record high, on revnue also up 25 percent at 568.65 billion roubles.
MRC