Serbia's Oil Monopoly Reports Drop in Half-year Profit
Serbian oil company NIS , majority owned by Russia's Gazprom Neft, reported a 38 percent drop in first-half net profit on Wednesday due to low oil prices.
The company said in a statement its earnings before tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell to 13.2 billion dinars ($119.97 million) from 21 billion dinars in the same period last year.
Net profit fell to 3.1 billion dinars from 5 billion in the first six months of 2015. It said its market share in Serbia rose by one percent to 43 percent.
One of the biggest contributors to Serbia's budget, NIS operates two refineries and produces oil and gas totalling 1.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent per year, operating fields in Serbia, Angola and Bosnia.
Russia's Gazprom Neft owns 56.2 percent of NIS, while the Serbian government owns 29.9 percent.
NIS's share price was down by 1.5 percent at 591 dinars by 1340 GMT.
(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac)
