Moscow, March 20 - Russian juice, baby food and water producer OAO Lebedyansky Thursday said its 2007 net profit fell 10% on the year, due in part to rising operating expenses.
Net profit under International Financial Reporting Standards stood at $79.2 million, despite revenue jumping 33% to $944.8 million on the back of higher selling prices and a 22% rise in overall volume sales to 1.14 billion liters.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose 12% to $155.6 million, but were crimped as sales, general and administrative costs, such as freight and warehousing, increased to 29% of revenue from 25% the previous year.
Lebedyansky - whose major shareholders earlier Thursday agreed to sell the company's juice business to PepsiCo (PEP) and Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) for $1.4 billion - saw its gross margin advance to 42.0% from 38.8% as higher selling prices more than offset rises in the price of raw materials.