Czech Unipetrol likely to post fourth quarter profit

Czech downstream oil group Unipetrol likely posted quarterly net profit in the fourth quarter of 2014, sustaining a recovery despite an expected hit from falling oil prices, a Reuters poll showed on Tuesday. The company, 63 percent owned by Poland's PKN Orlen , has booked impairments in previous years due to a margin squeeze as overcapacity hits Europe's refining sector.
But Unipetrol has swung from losses this year thanks to higher margins and rising sales after it gained a bigger stake in the country's main refinery. Analysts expect on average for Unipetrol to show a net profit of 479 million crowns ($19.95 million), after a loss of 690 million crowns in the same period the year before. The median estimate was 682 million crowns in the poll of four analysts, which had varying estimates due to the potential impact of inventory revaluations after a global oil price slump. J&T Banka estimated Unipetrol had EBITDA of almost 1.4 billion crowns but EBITDA adjusted for the inventory valuation (LIFO) of 3.1 billion crowns.