PKN Orlen SA, Poland's largest oil refiner and owner of the Lithuanian oil refinery Mazeikiu Nafta, posted a net loss in the first quarter of 2009, after a profit a year earlier, as falling oil prices cut the value of its inventory and the weakening zloty raised the cost of debt.
The net loss was 1.09 billion zloty (332.8 million dollars), compared with net income of 626.3 million zloty a year earlier, Plock, Poland-based Orlen said in a regulatory statement on Thursday.
That compares with the median estimate of a 1.18 billion-zloty loss in a Bloomberg News survey of 12 analysts. The loss before interest and taxes, or negative Ebit, was 320.5 million zloty, compared with positive Ebit of 565.1 million zloty. Sales fell to 14.7 billion zloty compared with 17.9 billion zloty and a median estimate of 15.7 billion zloty, informs ELTA.
The decline in the crude price in the quarter compared with the average for 2008, which lowers the value of the oil in Orlen's tanks, cut earnings by about 300 million zloty, the company said in April. Financial costs rose to 1.3 billion zloty from 285.9 million zloty after the Polish currency weakened 37% against the dollar and 24% against the euro from a year earlier.