St Petersburg, Nov 13- Russia's top brewer Baltika said on Monday its nine-month net sales soared by 76.6 percent to 1.338 billion euros ($1.72 billion) after its merger with three minor breweries.
Baltika's net profit jumped 34.8 percent year-on-year to 260.6 million euros ($309.7 million) over the same period.
The company's earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) gained 84.6 percent on the previous year to 440.9 million euros.
EBITDA margin, a key indicator of a company's profitability, grew by 33 percent in the first nine months of 2006 from 28.5 percent in the same year-ago period.
Shares of Baltika were up 5.16 percent at 1,120 roubles on the MICEX exchange, and up 1.25 percent at $40.5 on the RTS floor.
"This (nine-month sales figure) is in line with our forecast for the end of 2006 -- 1.76 billion euros," BrokerCreditService brokerage said in a research note.
"We maintain that Baltika's stock is attractive for long-term investment and affirm our "buy" recommendation with a price target of $54.69 per share."
Baltika, owned by Denmark's Carlsberg and Scottish & Newcastle Plc, has united with smaller affiliated breweries Pikra, Vena and Yarpivo.
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"The merger process is proceeding according to plan and its completion, as was announced previously, is expected by the end of 2006," Baltika said in a statement.
"Baltika Group is finishing up the integration of production, sales, distribution and administration... Now the significant positive financial effect of operational integration can be observed and the advantages of the merger can be noted earlier than it had been forecast."
The merged company's beer exports grew by 12 percent in year-on-year terms to 1.3 million hectolitres.
The company had said earlier that the merger is expected to save $60 million to $80 million in distribution costs. Baltika said it held 36.3 percent of Russia's beer market, including 37.2 percent in the third quarter alone. It said it had produced 28.6 million hectolitres in January-September, 8.5 percent more than in the same period of 2005.
Russia's beer market expanded by 9 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of this year, Baltika said.
Baltika President Anton Artemyev said the company was considering building a brewery in the western Siberian city of Novosibirsk. The brewery would have an annual capacity of no less than 2 million hectolitres.
He said the project -- now in the final stage of approval -- would cost around 70 million euros ($90.10 million), and construction could start by the 2008 season.