Baltic Oil Terminals Plc has announced that profit after tax during the first six months of 2011 declined by GBP 234,000 to GBP 2.622 million, from GBP 2.856 million during the corresponding period last year.
The company said that a number of factors contributed to the fall in profitability including the costs of its court cases in Russia, the extra costs of the Russian accounting team and audit and one-off costs associated with the acquisition and restructuring of
Petroval Bunker International BV.
Turnover during the 6-month period was down by GBP 1.58 million to GBP 6.042 million, from GBP 7.622 million the previous year. The group's cash balance as at 9 December 2011 amounted to GBP 3,010,830. The directors have not recommended the payment of a dividend.
Baltic Oil Terminals also published yesterday its annual results for the year ended 31 December 2010, where it achieved a rise in net profit of GBP 0.549 million to GBP 2.397 million, up from GBP 1.848 million in 2009.
As a result of the release of the company's annual audited accounts and half-yearly report, trading in its ordinary shares on AIM - the London Stock Exchange’s international market for smaller growing companies - has now resumed.
Trading in its ordinary shares on AIM had been suspended on 15 June 2011 when the company announced that it had become clear that it was not position to send its audited accounts for the year ended 31 December 2010 to shareholders by 30 June 2011 as required under AIM Rule 19.
The company said at the time that it had made significant changes to its senior management team at its operations in Kaliningrad, Russia, which included the dismissal of a senior employee. Following these changes Baltic Oil Terminals said it had become clear that some of the local financial records had either been destroyed or removed and an attempt made at replacing these with falsified information.
Acquisition of PBI
In December 2010, Baltic Oil Terminals acquired the assets of PBI, a Dutch company that leases heated tanks for fuel oil in Europort, Rotterdam. This company was renamed
Petro Broker International BV and has become a significant contributor to the group's cash flow and business.
PBI's capacity of 120,000 cubic metres was fully let for 2011. 40,000 cubic metres has already been leased for 2012 to a major trading company and negotiations are said to be at an advanced stage for the remainder of the capacity into 2012.
"The PBI acquisition has enabled Baltic to centralise its operations in Rotterdam, the central hub for the distribution of oil products in Europe, and it has been successfully integrated in the period under review.
"As a result of a stringent review of overheads, management have been able to reduce the operating overheads at both PBI and in London by over 35 percent and this will be better demonstrated during the second half of 2011, due to the one off costs mentioned above which were incurred in the first half of 2011. The General Manger of PBI will also be responsible for the operations of the new acquisition in Denmark, Dan-Balt Tank Lager A/S, and is already in operational control," Baltic Oil Terminals said.
Acquisition of Haahr Tank
On 22 November 2011 the company announced that it had entered into an agreement for the acquisition of
Haahr Tank-Lager A/S for US$9.9 million (approximately GBP 6.3 million) in cash, financed through the issue of US$11.0 million (approximately GBP 7.0 million) short-term Secured Fixed Rate Loan Notes, listed on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange. The terminal has been re-named
Dan-Balt Tank Lager A/S.
Dan-Balt Tank operates a 160,000 cubic metres refined oils terminal located at
Aabenraa in
Denmark.
"A valuation report commissioned by Baltic gives a new build cost for this facility of US$42 million. The purchase price reflects the fact that, under the terms of the acquisition, the vendor will retain the use of 35,000 cubic metres for the next five years.
"Dan-Balt Tank's location, roughly midway between Baltic's Kaliningrad and Europort businesses, provides great flexibility to Baltic's customer base. Its two berths and ability to host larger oil tankers than in Kaliningrad will facilitate large volumes through the terminal. There is also available space on the site for the expansion of capacity by approximately 20 percent," Baltic Oil Terminals said.
