PKN Orlen records 14% net profit increase for 2002

PKN Orlen raised its net profit by 14% in 2002 with the fuel group's d ominant domestic position helping it buck falling consumption at home, but not shielding it from lower global refining profitability. Orlen, Central Europe's leading refining group, said yesterday that its full-year earnings amounted to zl. 428 million having made a net profit of zl. 71 million in the last three months of the year. The fourth-quarter earnings jumped 78% over the same period last year as market conditions improved at the end of the year, but the result was hit by one-off costs and came below the average forecasts from a Reuters poll of zl. 114 million. Orlen's shares eased 0.2% to zl. 16.95 zloty in the wake of the results' release, but still outp erformed the wider WIG 20 index. (Reuters) A.C.