Russia's Norilsk Nickel lost $449 mln in 2008

MOSCOW (AP) -- The world's largest nickel producer, Russia's Norilsk Nickel, on Monday said it made a $449 million net loss in 2008 after taking a $4.7 billion writedown on assets including mines outside Russia. The loss, which followed net profit of $5.3 billion a year earlier, came as base-metals prices almost halved and the market stagnated. "The main factor in this was a substantial decrease of sales prices for nickel," the firm said in the statement. Norilsk also reported an 18 percent drop in revenues -- to some $14 billion. The company said impairment of non-financial assets amounted to $4.7 billion in 2008. The impairment charge includes $2.5 billion on assets acquired when the company bought Canada's LionOre Mining International. Norilsk also reported a foreign exchange loss of $397 million in 2008. Norilsk's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, fell by almost half compared to the year before to $5.8 billion. EBITDA is sometimes used as a measure of how a company's core business activity fared. The biggest shareholders in Norilsk Nickel are Interros, owned by billionaire Vladimir Potanin, and the world's largest aluminium producer Rusal, owned by tycoon Oleg Deripaska. Norilsk Nickel was in the middle of a fierce corporate battle last year as Potanin and Deripaska fought for control in the company.