Greece’s Motor Oil swings back into profit

Greece’s second-biggest refiner Motor Oil swung back into profit in the fourth quarter of last year, helped by lower inventory losses and improved refining margins.

Motor Oil reported a net profit of 29.4 million euros on Friday, compared with losses of 84.3 million euros in the last quarter of 2014.

The figure was in line with the average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters.

Plunging oil prices in the fourth quarter hurt the refiner’s oil inventories, but the impact was much less than in the same quarter a year earlier.

The company booked inventory losses of 65 million euros in the fourth quarter, compared to losses of 195 million in the same period a year ago.

Excluding the inventory losses, net profit rose 25.8 percent to 75.5 million euros, thanks to higher refining margins.

For the full year, net profit more than doubled to 290.2 million euros.

The company will pay a total dividend of 0.65 euros per share on last year’s results.

It has already paid 0.15 euros of that in December.

[Reuters]