OREANDA-NEWS. SUEK PLC published its audited financial results for the full year ended 31 December 2015, prepared in accordance with IFRS and audited by KPMG.

Financial Review
SUEK's 2015 financial results reflected the coal market's challenging backdrop. Group revenues amounted to USD 4,132 million, as compared to USD 5,053 million in 2014, while EBITDA amounted to USD 887 million, as opposed to USD 1,044 million in 2014.

Together with the weakening of the Russian Rouble, effective cost management drove the Group's average cost of sales for coal 35% lower to USD 11 per tonne. EBITDA margin was stable at 21%.

Given the lower coal prices, SUEK significantly decreased its investment programme focusing on the most cost-effective projects. Capital expenditures amounted to US$ 355 million, of which US$ 220 million was maintenance related.

Against the backdrop of weak coal prices, the Company's strategic priority has been to reduce its debt level. As at the end of 2015, combined with stable cash flow generation, the decrease in capital expenditure and absence of dividend allowed net debt to decline to USD 2,786 million, as compared to USD 3,342 million at the end of 2014. The net debt to EBITDA ratio decreased to 2.96x from 2.99x as at the end of 2014.  

Operational review
Higher coal consumption in Russia and stronger trading activity supported sales of 101.1 million tonnes of coal, which was 6% higher than the previous year.  

For the January to December 2015 period, the Group increased sales to international markets to 46.9 million tonnes of coal as it supplemented its own production with purchases of third-party coal. Trading of third-party coal increased to 10 million tonnes, as compared to 5.2 million tonnes in 2014. As well, SUEK further expanded its sales network in Asia. Since 2015, the Group's trading subsidiaries have been operating in all key coal markets. The exposure to local currencies serves to mitigate the effects of exchange rate fluctuations, while the Group's regional presence provides customers and end users with a number of additional services.  

Sales to Russian customers rose by 9% to 54.2 million tonnes of coal, of which 43.2 million tonnes went to power generating companies.

The Group's production volumes remained mostly flat year-on-year at 97.8 million tonnes.