Yahoo! Business News: Japan's Showa Shell 2005 pretax profit to fall 25 pct – report (ShellNews.net) 18 Jan 05
TOKYO (AFX) - Showa Shell Sekiyu KK is expected to post consolidated pretax profit of 45 bln yen in the 2005 calendar year, a 25 pct drop from a year earlier due to inventories of high-priced crude oil, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported, without citing sources.
Revenue is projected to be flat at about 1.85 trln yen on strong sales of products such as high-octane gasoline, it said.
The firm, which uses the weighted average costing method to value its crude oil inventory, saw its pretax profit pushed up by 25 bln yen in 2004 due to low-priced inventories it accumulated earlier in the year, the business daily said.
But because expectations of higher crude prices have receded, its profit will not likely be pushed up by such factors this year, it said.
Net profit is expected to be about 27 bln yen, an improvement from 2004, when the firm is believed to have broken even, it said.
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