Mechel's 2011 net profit up 11%

Russian steel and coking coal producer Mechel saw its 2011 US GAAP net profit grow 10.8 percent year-on-year, to $727.885 million, the company said in a statement on Thursday. That was above a consensus forecast of analysts polled by RIA Novosti who expected a net profit of $712 million. The company's revenue rose 28.7 percent last year to $12.546 billion, while its operating profit increased 19.5 percent to $1.832 billion. "On the whole, last year was quite successful for the group," Mechel CEO Yevgeny Mikhel was quoted in the statement as saying. "Despite difficulties with economic development in many countries that are traditional customers of Mechel’s products, volatility in the financial markets and ambiguous price dynamics for our company’s key products, we not only managed to implement a fairly large-scale investment program and advance on our key projects, but also improve on the previous year’s main financial parameters.". Adjusted EBITDA increased 18.7 percent to $2.393 billion in 2011, while adjusted EBITDA margin fell to 19.07 percent from 20.68 percent the previous year.