Cherkizovo 2010 net profits jump 21% to $144.4 mln

Cherkizovo, one of the leading meat and meat-product makers in Russia, increased net profits 21% last year to $144.4 million from $119.4 million the year before, the company said.

In ruble terms net profits were up 16% at 4.386 billion rubles from 3.789 billion rubles.

Company sales revenues were up 12% at 36.085 billion rubles last year versus 32.330 billion rubles in 2009. In dollars, that was a 17% increase to $1.188 million versus $1.019 million.

Operating expenses as a percentage of sales revenues dropped to 13% from 14% in 2009.

Adjusted EBITDA was up 15% at 6.641 billion rubles versus 5.782 billion in 2009 ($218.7 million versus $182.3 million). The company’s EBITDA margin was 18%, about the same as the year before.

The Cherkizovo group’s gross profits were up 10% at 9.835 billion rubles from 8.934 billion rubles in 2009 (15% to $323.9 million from $281.6 million). The gross profit margin was 27% in 2010.

The group placed 3 billion rubles worth of three-year exchange bonds at 8.25% on November 10, 2010. The money raised from this placement will be put into paying down short-term debt, and funding on-going investment and other investment aims.

The Cherkizovo group launched a large poultry-raising facility called Roscha last December as part of a project for increasing poultry-meat production capacity in Bryansk Region. It also launched the poultry facility Komarovka this month to increase Penza Region production.

Cherkizovo Group, which was formed in 2005, encompasses seven meat- processing companies in the Moscow region, Penza, Ulyanovsk, Belgorod and Rostov Regions and Krasnodar Territory, four hog complexes, two poultry farms and a compound feed plant. The company held an IPO on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in May 2006 that raised $251 million. The group is controlled by Igor Babayev and members of his family.