MOSCOW, October 12 (RIA Novosti) - Evraz Group [LSE: EVR], a leading Russian steel and mining company, said Thursday its net profits, calculated according to international accounting standards, fell 6.7% in the first half of 2006, year-on-year, to $571 million.
Incomes grew 5.3% over the period, to $3.825 billion, whereas operating profits dropped to $938 million, 6.7% down on last year's figure, the company said in a news release.
Earlier this week, the company reported that its output of rolled metal products rose 22.3% in the first nine months of 2006, year-on-year, to 10.8 million metric tons. Steel output increased 17.6%, to 12 million tons, while cast iron production was up 13.8%, at 9.7 million tons.
In August, Evraz Group, which produced nearly 14 million metric tons of steel in 2005 and had revenues of $6.5 billion, sold 41% of its stock to U.K.-based Millhouse Capital, which manages Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's assets. The company did not disclose the price, but experts valued the deal at $2.7-3 billion.
