Greece’s Titan H1 net seen flat at €61.3 mln

Greece's biggest cement producer, Titan, is expected to post broadly flat year-on-year profit in the first half as improved sales in Egypt and the Balkans offset falling business in its home market.
The average forecast of seven analysts polled by Reuters was for net profit of 61.3 mln euros. Sales are seen dropping 3.8% to 657.6 mln euros.
Sales of Titan, which runs cement plants in nine countries including the United States and Egypt, have been hit by the collapse of the U.S. housing market and the recession in Greece.
But the company is growing elsewhere, having added 3 mln tonnes of new production capacity in Egypt and Albania over the past months.
"The Eastern Mediterranean is on a growth trajectory, while the Balkan region posts growth due to the Albanian market," analyst Elias Katsikalis at Piraeus Securities said in a note to investors.
"Domestic operations will remain weak on the back of a dwindling economy and significant fall in private and public investments," Katsikalis added.
Analysts expect Titan to take a charge of 7.9 mln euros for an austerity tax imposed by Greece's cash-strapped government on profitable companies.
Titan's share price has dropped 20% so far this year, outperforming a 25% drop in the general Athens index. The stock trades at 10.2 times estimated 2010 earnings, compared with a multiple of 11.2 for French peer Lafarge, data from Reuters Estimates showed.