Dow Jones International News
ALMATY, Kazakhstan-Kazakhstan Kagazy PLC (KAG.LN), paper producer and industrial real estate developer, said Tuesday its first-half net profit rose 30% on year to $2.7 million on the growth of its paper business. "Our paper business continued to generate a high double-digit rate of revenue growth year on year in the first six months of 2007 and demonstrated a further acceleration in the first two months of the second half," said Maksat Arip, the company's chief executive.
Kagazy's consolidated revenues increased 54% on year to $35.3 million, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and appreciation, or Ebitda, more than doubled to $9.6 million with a margin of 27%, the company said in a statement. Operating profit more than doubled to $7.5 million, the company said. Arip said the company's revenue growth is expected to accelerate in the second half of this year "as already evidenced by the first two months of the second half." Arip added: "We see the current market conditions as favorable for our business as a result of our solid position."
Kagazy raised $273.5 million in an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in July.