Raspadskaya 2011 Net Slumps 45% on Output Drop, Misses Estimates

OAO Raspadskaya (RASP), a Russian coking coal producer partly owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich, said profit dropped 45 percent last year as output shrank after delays in restoring its main mine following a 2010 explosion.

Net income fell to $135 million from $245 million a year earlier, Raspadskaya said today in an e-mailed statement. That missed an average estimate of $201.8 million from 12 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Adjusted earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell about 4 percent to $324 million. Revenue climbed 2.9 percent to $726 million.

Coal output fell 13 percent to 6.25 million metric tons, Raspadskaya said in January, below the 6.4 million-ton estimate the company gave in December. The decline was partly due to delays in safety approvals as Raspadskaya (RASP) restores output at its main mine following the blast in 2010 that killed 90 people.

A design project for a new face at the Raspadskaya mine, #4-9-23, received approvals and mining is expected to start there in the middle of April, Chief Executive Officer Gennady Kozovoy said in the statement.

The drop in production is the main reason for the weaker performance, Dmitry Smolin, an analyst at Uralsib Capital, said before the results were reported.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yuliya Fedorinova in Moscow at yfedorinova@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Viljoen at jviljoen@bloomberg.net