Daniel Linteş, "Socep": "A large part of our profits comes from interests on our bank deposits"

• The company plans independent layoffs

Port operator "Socep" Constanţa (symbol:SOCP) had a net profit of 626.877 lei in the first semester, over nine times higher compared to H1 2009. The management of the company explained that part of this profit comes from interest accumulating on its deposits.

"This increase in the company"s profit is somewhat artificial given the fact that it comes from interests accumulating on deposits. Another source for the profit was the reduction in the number of employees", said for BURSA, Daniel Linteş, the president and managing director of the company.

In the January-June period of this year, the port operator had financial revenues of 1.73 million lei and financial expenses slightly above 800,000 lei. For comparison, in the first semester of 2009, the company had financial revenues of 1.12 million lei and financial expenses of 64.211 lei. During the same period, the number of employees dropped from 552 to 394.

"We will probably need to resort to individual layoffs", the manager of "Socep".

The company"s business turnover dropped compared to the first six months of 2009, to 19.24 million lei, at the end of June 2010. For comparison, "Socep""s turnover at the end of June 2009 was 21.8 million lei.

"Our operations have two divisions: containers and general merchandise. In the first semester of 2009, we lost approximately 70% of the container traffic compared to 2009, and in 2009 traffic dropped almost 95% compared to 2008. On the general merchandise part, we did just as well as we did in 2009, with a 2-3% increase, perhaps", said Daniel Linteş. Even though he says that the outlook for the second half isn"t good, given the economic crisis, the manager of "Socep" however remains optimistic, because business usually improves in the second quarter.

The revenues of "Socep" dropped slightly from 24.5 million lei, at the end of H1 2009, to 22.4 million lei. The company"s total expenses followed a similar trend, dropping 11.5% to 21.35 million lei.

At the end of July, the company owed 4.74 million lei, down slightly from 4.96 million lei, at the end of June 2009. The receivables of "Socep" however increased 6.71%, in H1 2010

Based on Friday"s price of 0.186 lei/share, "Socep" Constanţa had a market capitalization of 63.19 million lei.

In spring this year, the construction material maker "Celco", onwed by the Duşu family, launched a takeover bid for the shares of SOCP at a price of 0.15 lei/share. The offer ended without any of its shareholders subscribing.

Together with "Cina", "DD Group" and "Sulina Estival 2002", "Celco" owns 34.51% of "Socep".