Toray announced results for Q1 2015

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Toray Industries reports a 78% rise in net profits for the company’s fiscal first quarter, ended 30 June 2015, compared with the year-ago period, to USD210.9 million, up 11% year on year, said the company in its press release.

Toray's plastics and chemicals business segment posted a 2.6% increase in first-quarter sales compared with the year-ago quarter, to ?123.7 billion. The segment reports a 34% rise in operating profits, to ?7.6 billion. In the resin business, overall domestic sales remained strong partly because of higher exports on the back of the weaker yen despite lower selling prices for some automotive applications reflecting the trend in crude oil price. Sales volumes at subsidiaries in the United States expanded for automotive applications, and the sales volume of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene resin at a Malaysian subsidiary remained strong. In the film business, the products for packaging applications performed strongly both in Japan and overseas, Toray says.

Toray's fibers and textiles segment's first-quarter sales increased 16% compared with the year-ago period, to ?208.0 billion, and operating profits for the segment increased 62%, to ?17.0 billion. In Japan, demand for apparel applications remained weak and sales for industrial applications were affected by some customers adjusting inventory for automotive applications, Toray says. The company improved its profitability by upgrading the business primarily through promoting a business that integrates fibers to textiles and final products. Slower demand in Europe and sluggish demand in China affected textile subsidiaries in Southeast Asia and China, but these subsidiaries pursued sales expansions and shifts toward high-value-added products, Toray says. Sales for automotive applications and hygiene products in emerging countries remained strong, Toray says.

Toray's carbon fiber composite materials segment recorded a 30% rise in first-quarter sales, to ?49.3 billion, and operating profits for the segment more than doubled, to ?10.9 billion.

As MRC informed earlier, Toray Industries, Inc. has announced that it has formulated a plan to expand the polyester staple fiber business at Toray Chemical Korea Inc., the acquisition of which Toray completed in February 2014, to pursuit synergy effects within Toray Group.

Toray Industries is a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan that specializes in industrial products centered around technologies in organic synthetic chemistry, polymer chemistry, and biochemistry. Its founding business areas were fibers and textiles, as well as plastics and chemicals. Toray Group Malaysia companies are involved in four main businesses -- polyester fibres, textiles, plastic resins and polyester films.


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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Brazil`s state-run oil giant Petrobras, rocked by a massive graft scandal, said that second quarter net income fell nearly 90% from a year ago, in part due to plummeting crude prices, said Thecapitalpost.

The company attributed the sharp drop in net income -- a figure that was far lower than analysts had expected -- to an increase in tax expenses. Petrobras also said it suffered from a 1.3 billion reais deterioration in the value of its assets after slashing its multi-year investment plan.

The company reported net income of 531 million reais (USD150 million) in the second quarter, compared to 4.96 billion reais in the same period last year. In the first quarter, Petrobras clocked net income of 5.330 billion reais.

Share value has plummeted as the company battles a mountain of debt and struggles to meet production goals in the wake of the corruption scandal. Prosecutors estimate that some USD2.1 billion in bribes was moved as part of the scheme, and several top politicians have been implicated.

Investigators allege that top Petrobras executives colluded with construction companies to inflate contracts and to bribe politicians. Numerous government officials have been arrested in the probe, with police detaining a top aide to former president Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva.

The former treasurer of the ruling Workers` Party was arrested in April on charges that he funnelled bribes skimmed from the top of fake Petrobras contracts. Prosecutors have also announced charges against Marcelo Odebrecht, chairman of Brazil`s biggest construction firm, Odebrecht.

As MRC informed earlier, the chief executive of Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA estimates it will take five years for the state-run oil producer to win back the credibility it lost among investors after a massive corruption scandal sent some of its top executives to jail.

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The chief executive of Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA estimates it will take five years for the state-run oil producer to win back the credibility it lost among investors after a massive corruption scandal sent some of its top executives to jail, said Reuters.

Aldemir Bendine told daily O Estado de S.Paulo that the corruption scandal will weigh on Petrobras as long as investigations continue but that he will keep pushing for management and financial changes in the company.

"I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe in this project," he said in an interview published on the paper's website on Saturday. "It is a five-year project."

Petrobras last week reported a 89% plunge in its second-quarter net income as it took a one-time charge for underperforming projects before a planned sale of up to USD15.1 billion in assets by the end of 2016.

Bendine said he was negotiating partnerships to help Petrobras conclude some of its investments, including its USD15 billion Comperj refinery outside Rio de Janeiro.

"We already have four investors interested (in Comperj), including a Chinese investor," he said without giving names. "The (partnership) value is 3-4 billion reais (USD0.9-1.1 billion) but if they want to invest more I won't be upset."

Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras is an integrated energy firm. Petrobras' activities include exploration, exploitation and production of oil from reservoir wells, shale and other rocks as well as refining, processing, trade and transport of oil and oil products, natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, in addition to other energy-related activities.
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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sasol, the world’s biggest producer of liquid fuels from coal, said full-year profit fell as much as 19%, less than analysts estimated, after oil prices declined, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The stock rose the most in more than three months. Earnings per share excluding one-time items probably declined by as much as 11.43 rand (90 US cents) in the year to June 30, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement Friday. That equates to as little as 48.73 rand, which exceeds average estimate of 42.67 rand by 15 analysts polled by Bloomberg.

"Sasol’s profitability was negatively impacted by a 33% lower average Brent crude oil price," it said. Dated Brent traded at an average of USD73.46/bbl from USD109 in 2014, the producer said. Sasol is conserving costs after oil prices declined. The company, whose revenue is linked to the dollar price of oil, delayed plans to build a US gas-to-liquids plant, the nation’s first, that would have cost as much as USD14 billion, it said on Jan. 28.

Sasol shares climbed as much as 4.2% to 439 rand and traded 3.3% higher at 435.19 rand at 9:09 a.m. in Johannesburg, giving the producer a market value of 282.7 billion rand.

The company in March said it would conserve as much as USD4.2 billion in cash in addition to a program that entails cost savings of at least 4.3 billion rand annually from July 2017. The producer exceeded its cost-savings target for the 2015 financial year and said implementation costs remain within forecasts.

Sasol increased liquid fuel sales volumes by 5% to a record 61.5 MMbbl, while base chemicals climbed 2% and performance chemicals increased 3%, it said.

Sasol will take a further 1.3 billion rand partial impairment of a share in the Montney shale-gas assets in Canada due to poor conditions in the North American gas market, it said. It wrote off 5.3 billion rand on the asset last year.

As MRC informed before, in June 2014, Sasol Chemicals North America and INEOS Olefins & Polymers announced that they had reached final investment decision to form a 50/50 joint venture to build an HDPE plant in La Porte, Texas. The ethylene required for the production of the HDPE will be supplied by Sasol and INEOS in proportion to their respective ownership positions.

Sasol Limited is an integrated energy and chemical company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It develops and commercialises technologies, including synthetic fuels technologies, and produces different liquid fuels, chemicals and electricity.

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MOSCOW (MRC) -- Romanian prosecutors said on Monday they have indicted Russia's Petrotel Lukoil refinery in Romania, its Russian director-general and three other officials for money-laundering in a EUR2 billion (USD2.19 billion) criminal probe, said Reuters.

Prosecutors have already seized Lukoil assets worth EUR2 billion as part of their investigation into suspected money-laundering at the refinery, in the southern Romanian city of Ploiesti.

Russia's second-largest oil producer, Lukoil has denied the accusations and said it would appeal against the asset seizure. It also called last month for the European Commission to help it fight the charges. When contacted by Reuters about the indictments, a spokesman declined to give any new comment. No one was available for comment at the refinery.

Prosecutors from the Ploiesti court of appeals indicted the director-general of the refinery, as well as two deputy managers and also a Netherlands-registered holding company.

No trial date has been set as of now. Prosecutors said the Romanian secret service, known as SRI, assisted them in their investigation.

"Throughout 2011-2014, the indicted ... have used the company's assets in bad faith and the credit it enjoys, for a purpose contrary to its interests, to favour other companies in which they had a direct or indirect interest to strike crude oil purchasing contracts," the statement said.

The officials were indicted for "sealing supply deals for finished goods in disadvantageous price terms which produced losses as delivery prices were set below production costs."

In October of last year police and customs inspectors raided the offices of Lukoil near Ploiesti in an investigation into alleged tax evasion and money laundering concerning an estimated 230 million euros at the time.

Lukoil , a Russian-based company, is one of the global leaders in the production and refining of crude oil and gas resources. The world's largest privately owned oil and gas company, measured by proven oil reserves, Lukoil has operations in over 40 countries.


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