27th Jun 2014 11:48
LONDON (Alliance News) - Urals Energy PCL Friday said it swung to a net loss in 2013 as a jump in operating profit levels were offset by foreign currency losses as the US dollar strengthened against the Russian rouble during the year.
The exploration and production company, which has operations in Russia, said it swung to a net loss of USD273,000 from a net profit of USD2.6 million the previous year.
Urals said its net revenues increased slightly to USD50.3 million from USD49.9 million as a small fall in production from its Petrosakh oil field was offset by higher oil prices during the period.
The company also said it reduced its cost of sales significantly leading to an operational profit of USD2.8 million compared with just USD100,000 in 2012.
However, Urals said its profits were hit by a significant 8% fall in the Russian rouble price against the dollar, when the opposite occurred in 2012. It added that if not for the foreign exchange loss, net profit would have increased to USD3.6 million.
The company faced a possible vote against its board in January 2014 as its two biggest shareholders, Fire East Corp and Alpcot Capital Management Ltd, launched the attempt to remove all board members because they said the company is underperforming.
At an extraordinary general meeting on January 27, 67.02% of shareholders rejected all six resolutions calling to oust the board.
Alpcot Capital Management since has sold all of its shareholding in the company and Torbjorn Ranta, the representative of Alpcot on the company's board, subsequently resigned.
Urals Energy shares were trading 2.4% higher at 4.35 pence per share on Friday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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