World’s Largest Profit at Gazprom Pays for Putin’s Pipes
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The world’s most profitable energy company is being punished by investors who are concerned it’s also the biggest spendthrift.
OAO Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas export monopoly, will beat Exxon Mobil Corp. to earn $37.9 billion in 2012, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Yet its shares have fallen 18 percent this year as the state-run company uses its cash to finance the industry’s largest capital expenditure program, including an export terminal in the Far East and undersea pipelines to Europe, where demand is forecast to drop.