Repsol compensates for the weakness of the oil market with control of the spending – Yahoo Finance Spain

By Jose Elias Rodriguez and Sarah White

MADRID (Reuters) – an oil market whose prices continue to adapt the sector’s major companies, the Spanish Repsol tightened still more the belt in the third quarter to ride out the losses in the area of “upstream” and the erosion of margins in the refining, his table of salvation that began with the collapse of the Brent.

The company owned by La Caixa practically completed in September, the plan of savings that I had for the whole year raising it in 300 million to 1,400 million euros and its chief financial officer Miguel Martinez said in addition that in 2016 it will invest approximately 3,500 million euros, about 400 million less than planned.

In the third quarter, the company had a net profit adjusted for extraordinary and cost constant inventory (CCS) of $ 307 million, almost double that of a year before by drastically reducing the losses in exploration and production up to 28 million, and despite a collapse of 45 percent year-on-year in the refining margin in Spain.

analysts polled by Reuters had expected a result of 296 million.

Martinez anticipated an improvement in the margin in refining in the fourth quarter with the increase of domestic demand and the return to normal of its two main refineries after maintenance shutdowns. For the year as a whole puts the margin at an average of eur 6.97 us $ compared to 5.1 dollars for the third quarter.

The group’s debt, the main battle horse of Repsol in their efforts to protect your credit rating, is ranked below the 10,000 million euros, from 11,700 million in June, thanks to the recent sale of a 10 percent Natural Gas.

The chief financial officer, told analysts that there was still work to be done to strengthen the capital structure of the group, with options ranging from divestment of lower outstanding debt hybrid.

he Also pointed out that the company he would not return to a policy of shareholder remuneration standard of cash dividends and the repurchase of shares up to which the rating was afianzase in levels of triple “BBB”.

finally, he noted that the 600 million euros that Repsol will have to pay to the tax authorities as advance payment of company tax would have no impact on the strategy of the oil to be recovered the next year.

The actions of Repsol, that first time had suffered a downgrade of the recommendation of JP Morgan, stood out with a rise of 1.6 per cent, as against 0.5 per cent, which went up to the Ibex-35. So far this year, Repsol has gone up 25 per cent on the stock exchange, only surpassed in Europe by the british BP, which appreciates in value 28 per cent.