News // Companies

Russia's gas giant Gazprom's first quarter IFRS net profits tripled to 324.9 billion rubles year-on-year, the company said on Thursday.
Revenue grew by 14 percent to 956.8 billion rubles, the company said.
The results exceeded analysts' average forecast of 299 billion rubles and revenue of 944.9 billion rubles.
Sales profit grew by 20 percent to 339.3 billion rubles in January-March 2010, while pre-tax profit increased by 180 percent to 421.7 billion rubles.
Operating expenses increased by 12 percent to 623.5 billion rubles. Net debt fell by 29 percent as of March 31, 2010.
"This was primarily caused by an increase of cash and its equivalents and a decrease of long-term and short-term borrowings as Gazpromenergobank's liabilities as a group set for disposal were reflected in the documents as of March 31, 2010," the company said.