OREANDA-NEWS. OAO Pharmacy Chain 36.6 [RTS:APTK; MICEX:RU14APTK1007] announces its non-audited consolidated financial results for the first half of 2007 in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Sales
Consolidated sales in H1 2007 increased by 78.6% year-on-year and reached US$390.5 million.
Sales in the pharmacy segment increased by 92.0% year-on-year in H1 2007 and reached US$302.9 million. The significant sales growth in the pharmacy segment is primarily a result of the large number of pharmacies acquired in 2006. The sales of pharmacies that had operated for one year or more as of the beginning of 2006 (like-for-like sales, US$) grew by 34.6%.
Veropharm’s sales reached US$59.5 million, up 31.7% over the first half of 2006, primarily as a result of strong growth in sales of the prescription drugs segment.
Sales of the European Medical Center (EMC) totaled US$12.7 million in H1 2007.

Profit
Consolidated gross profit in H1 2007 grew by 66.1% and reached US$130.9 million. Expansion of the pharmacy chain into the regions led to a decrease in the gross profit margin in the retail segment to 27.5%. Retail segment gross margin increased in Q2 2007 to 28.0%, compared to 27.0% in Q1 2007.
Consolidated EBITDA increased by 63.9% and reached US$15.0 million.  EBITDA for the production business grew by 38.9% and reached US$17.0 million. In the retail sector EBITDA decreased to US$  -3 million.  EBITDA for EMC totaled US$3.5 million.
The Company’s net losses in H1 2007 totaled US$16.9 million.

Debt
Net debt as of the end of H1 2007 amounted to US$247.1 million.