OREANDA-NEWS. October 28, 2009. Russia's top airline posted a mere 2% YoY decline for consolidated turnover in September, which corresponds roughly to a 7% YoY decrease compared to the corresponding figure for 3Q09, reported the press-centre of OTKRITIE Financial Corporation.

View: We incorporate a 10% YoY decline in the key operating metric of Aeroflot for 2009E. However, given the low base of 4Q08 we think that the company will most probably outpace expectations. Nonetheless, the fundamental impact of these numbers is rather limited, certainly not sufficient to necessitate an alteration to our financial forecast. Consequently, the news is neutral in our view.

Valuation and Action: Aeroflot trades on a 2009E EV/EBITDA of 8.5x, which is in line with foreign peers. The company will post its 1H09 IFRS statement on Thursday, 29 October, which could trigger a movement in the stock price.