Russia's Rosneft posts Q3 net income, defies forecast for loss
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MOSCOW, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Rosneft, Russia's biggest oil producer, posted on Wednesday a steep fall in its third-quarter net income because of a weaker rouble and sliding oil prices, but defied expectations of a net loss.
The state-controlled company, which has been hit by Western sanctions over Moscow's role in Ukraine, said its July-September net profit fell to 1 billion roubles ($23.3 million) from 172 billion roubles in the previous quarter.
Analysts, polled by Reuters, had expected a third quarter net loss of 3.6 billion roubles.
The company said its third-quarter results were undermined by a loss of 95 billion roubles, related to the fall in the rouble rate against the U.S. dollar.
Rosneft, which saw net debt stand at 1.77 trillion roubles in the third quarter, has borrowed heavily to finance last year's $55 billion acquisition of Anglo-Russian oil firm TNK-BP.
Rosneft's shares rose by almost 1 percent after the report, underperforming a 1.4 percent rise in the broader market.
Rosneft's net profit before losses from foreign currencies reached 411 billion roubles for January-September. Rosneft added that its revenues in nine months stood at 4.2 trillion roubles.
Nine-month earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were at 869 billion roubles, up from 674 billion roubles in the year-earlier period. (1 US dollar = 42.8250 Russian rouble) (Reporting by Katya Golubkova and Vladimir Soldatkin, editing by Elizabeth Piper)
