MOL 1Q Net Profit Meets Forecast On Shrinking Financial Loss

Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Nyrt. (MOL.BU) said Thursday that its unadjusted net result swung into a profit in the first quarter of this year from a significant loss a year earlier as a result of a dramatic shrinkage in its net financial loss.

MOL's bottom line swung to an unadjusted net profit of 19.01 billion forints ($84.7 million) in the first quarter of this year, from a loss of HUF114.82 billion a year earlier, in line with the median profit forecast of HUF20 billion given in a portfolio.hu poll.

Diluted, unadjusted earnings were HUF267 per share, versus a loss of HUF1,395 per share in the same period of 2009, and down from HUF443 in the previous quarter.

The net loss on financial operations shrank to HUF23.47 billion in the first three months of the year, from HUF147.13 billion a year earlier, as currency revaluation-related losses fell sharply.

The unadjusted operating profit fell to HUF59.48 billion from HUF67.41 billion a year earlier while the consolidation of Croatian subsidiary INA from the second half of last year onward boosted operational results of this year's first quarter significantly.

-By Margit Feher, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]