Turkish oil refinery Tüpraş posts 87 percent jump in Q4 net profit

ISTANBUL - Reuters

Turkish oil refiner Tüpraş, owned by Koç Holding, posted an 87 percent jump in its fourth-quarter profit, helped by higher refining margins.

Tüpraş’ net profit was 213 million Turkish Liras ($84.7 million) in the last three months of the year, compared with 114 million liras in the same period of 2013, according to a filing late on late March 2.

The company had been expected to post a net 155 million liras, according to a Reuters poll of seven brokerages.

“In the fourth quarter, increased maintenance globally, unplanned refinery outages and slowing supply, along with quickly falling crude oil prices, saw Mediterranean refining margins [widen],” Tüpraş said in an e-mailed statement.

The full-year profit was 22 percent higher at 1.46 billion liras, while sales declined 3 percent to 39.7 billion liras, it said.

“Despite a 55 million liras provision against a tax fine, forex-related gains ... of 88 million liras were the main reason for the outperformance on the bottom line,” said analysts at Deniz Invest in a note.

Looking ahead, Tüpraş said it expects production to hit 27.5 million tons in 2015, or 95 percent of capacity usage, once its $2.7 billion residuum upgrade project (RUP) is fully commissioned this month.
Output was 21 million tons last year.

Tüpraş said it will invest another $60 million to complete the RUP, part of total investments worth $220 million this year.

Meanwhile, Koç Holding, which owns leading companies in the automotive and banking sectors as well as the oil refinery sector, said yesterday its net income last year was largely flat at 2.71 billion liras ($1.08 billion).

Sales rose 3.7 percent to 68.82 billion liras, Koç said in an income statement.

“The limited growth figures and slowdown in exports affected the confidence in the economy and the pace of economic activity negatively in the last quarter of 2014...The decrease in the lira’s value has had a negative effect on the possible positive effect of the oil slump on inflation rates in Turkey,” the company said.

Koç Holding CEO Turgay Durak said yesterday by a written statement that the group made record high investments of 7.6 billion liras last year, reaching 19 billion liras of investments in the last three years.