ZCZC
BCN-26
HONGKONG-RUSSIA-COMMODITIES-RUSAL-EARNINGS
Rusal Q4 net profit plunged as US sanctions bit
HONG KONG, March 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Russian aluminium giant Rusal
suffered a net loss in the fourth quarter, it said on Thursday, citing the
“serious” impact of US sanctions and global trade disputes.
The world’s largest aluminium maker outside of China was hit by sanctions
in April following a diplomatic crisis sparked by the poisoning of former
double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain.
The sanctions targeted oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin
including Rusal founder Oleg Deripaska.
He resigned his seat on the board and divested as the company worked to
escape the sanctions, which were eventually lifted in January.
But the blacklisting hit the bottom line of the Hong Kong-listed company,
which released its annual results on Thursday.
The company recorded an adjusted net loss of $17 million in the last three
months of 2018. That compares with a $338 million profit in July-September
and a $350 million profit in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Adjusted net loss for the full year was down 20.5 percent at $856 million.
“The aluminium market in 2018 was seriously affected by the… sanctions
as well as by trade wars and imposed import duties that caused significant
growth of premiums and prices,” the company said in a statement.
Rusal said it expected a more positive outlook for 2019 now that sanctions
have been lifted.
Deripaska is one of several oligarchs sanctioned last year in retaliation
for what the US called “the Russian government’s ongoing and increasingly
brazen pattern of malign activity across the world”, including its
interference in Syria and its seizure of Crimea.
The tycoon is known to be friendly with Putin and had business ties with
Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has been convicted
of tax crimes and bank fraud following a probe by Special Counsel Robert
Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
The firm’s shares were down more than four percent by the break in Kong
Kong, though they have soared nearly 50 percent this year thanks to the
lifting of the sanctions.
The company said recurring net profit for 2018 rose eight percent to $1.7
billion.
Looking to the year ahead, “we expect aluminium demand to recover after
the trade wars and supply shocks of late 2018”, said chief executive officer
Evgenii Nikitin in a statement.
BSS/AFP/HR/1240