MOSCOW, July 30 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's largest diamond producer, Alrosa [RTS: ALRS], said Wednesday its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards fell 41% year-on-year in the first half of 2008 to 3.43 billion rubles ($147 million).
The company's net profit in the second quarter of the year was 2.27 billion rubles ($97.3 million), against 1.16 billion rubles ($49.7 million) in January-March. Alrosa attributes such growth to a rise in the sales of rough diamonds, non-core income and a decline in commercial and administrative costs.
Alrosa, which accounts for 97% of Russian and 25% of global diamond output, produced diamonds worth $2.37 billion in 2007. In the first half of 2007 its net profit was almost 6 billion rubles.
