POLAND: Polmos Lublin warns of profit slide

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 18 December 2006

Polmos Lublin has warned that its profits for this year will come in below its initial forecasts.

The Polish vodka distiller said on Friday (15 December) that net profits for 2006 should hit PLN14.7m (US$5.1m), down on the initial estimate of PLN17.9m. Lublin blamed the lower target on a rise in spirits prices in Poland and the delay of a property sale in Warsaw.

Expectations for total sales this year were raised, however, with a figure of PLN524m trumping the earlier gross revenue target of PLN424m.

Earlier this year, Lublin faced an ownership change, when its controlling shareholder, Jablonna - which held a 41% stake in Lublin, was bought by US private equity fund Oaktree Capital Management. The equity firm subsequently offered PLN52 per share to the remaining Lublin shareholders - a move it had to make under Polish Law.

Sectors: Spirits