BUCHAREST (Romania), August 8 (SeeNews) - Raiffeisen Capital & Investment Research (RCI) on Wednesday put under review its target price and 'hold' recommendation for the shares of Romanian oil and gas group OMV Petrom [BSE:SNP] following the release of the company's first-half results.
OMV Petrom reported earlier on Wednesday a net profit of 2.027 billion lei ($553 million/446 million euro) for the first half of 2012, 16% up on the year. In the second quarter alone, the net profit fell by an annual 29% to 643 million lei.
"OMV Petrom results for 2Q 2012 were below our and consensus expectations, as the impact from the six-week refinery shutdown led to much higher than expected losses for refining&marketing [R&M] segment," RCI said in its First Impression on OMV Petrom's results.
In the R&M segment, the group turned to negative earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 111 million lei from 4.0 million lei in the first half of 2011. In the second quarter alone, EBIT in R&M segment reached a negative 198 million lei, double the loss estimated by RCI.
"We will revise our estimates based on the released results and the announced gas price liberalization," it added.
RCI said the expected gas price liberalisation is due to have its first effects in December 2012.
RCI added that group's results on the Exploration&Production segment came basically in line with its expectations, while margins for the Gas&Power segment exceeded its estimates "apparently driven by better terms for domestic gas sales and favorable changes in bad debt provisions."
OMV Petrom, majority-owned by Austria's OMV, is among the 10 most liquid stocks on the Bucharest bourse, and is included in its blue-chip BET index. Its shares last traded 0.52% down at 0.3840 lei by 0943 GMT.
RCI's current target price for OMV Petrom is 0.419 lei.
(1 euro=4.5405 Romanian lei)