OREANDA-NEWS. July 23, 2007. Russian carmaker GAZ posted losses worth 66 million rubles ($2.6 million) calculated to Russian Accounting Standards in the first half of 2007, against 85.5 million rubles ($3.36 million) in profits for the same period last year.

The company said in a statement that its net profits amounted to 143 million rubles ($5.6 million) in the second quarter of 2007, and reported 209 million rubles ($8 million) in losses for the first quarter.

GAZ said the results followed "an increase in sales and lower expenses on ordinary activities in the second quarter of 2007."

GAZ Group was established in 2005 and includes the GAZ carmaker in Nizhny Novgorod in central Russia and its subsidiaries.

The group's net profit, calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards, was slightly over 6 billion rubles ($236 million) in 2006, twice as much as in 2005, and its revenues increased 26% year-on-year to 119 billion rubles ($4.7 billion).