British exploration firm reports €480k profit

British exploration firm, Europa Oil & Gas, which has two potentially huge prospects in Irish waters, has reported a pre-tax profit of £407,000 (€480,000) for the 12 months to the end of July.

The swing into full-year profit (the London-based explorer recorded pre-tax losses of just over £12m in its previous financial year) came on the back of lower sales costs and favourable impairment comparisons to the previous year.

Excluding exploration write-offs and impairment costs, Europa posted a pre-tax profit of £600,000 for the year. Cash generated from operations fell from £2.1m to £1.6m, but the firm’s net cash balance improved from £200,000 to £700,000.