Rompetrol CFO: No more negative news. We'll break even in 2012, as previously announced

Almost four years after the bravest step KazMunaiGaz state-owned company has made on the European market, acquiring Rompetrol group for a hefty sum from businessman Dinu Patriciu, the Kazakhs are certain: 2012 will be the year of zero losses for the group. On what do Rompetrol owners count in their calculations, when figures show that Rompetrol Rafinare losses alone have topped 500m euros in the past five years?

“Rompetrol is now a company that differs a lot from the one of several years ago. The balance sheet looks different. We’re done with negative news. We’ve improved our cash flow and this reflects in the high interest from the banking community in the talks we have with it,” says Dmitry Grigoryev, CFO of Rompetrol group, without disclosing the names of the bankers willing to lend money to the company.

At group level, preliminary 2010 figures show Rompetrol hit turnover worth 4.7bn dollars (3.5bn euros), but reported losses of 172m dollars (129m euros), in line with IAS. Despite the figures, Grigoryev is upbeat and explains why he believes the group will come to be a profitable investment.

“We’ve cut expenses by 200m dollars, namely 30% of operating charges. In 2011 we’ll cut costs by another 15m dollars. (…) We’ll break even in 2012, as we’ve announced before”.