MOSCOW - Russia's Norilsk Nickel said on Tuesday its net profit sank by 39% in 2020 after it set aside $2-billion to cover an environmental damage claim after a major fuel spill in the Arctic.
Nornickel, the world's largest producer of palladium and a leading producer of nickel, has been fined $2-billion for the damage caused by the spill last year in the country's worst environmental disaster in the Arctic. The court's ruling is yet to come into force.
The company said its 2020 net profit fell to $3.6-billion from $6-billion in 2019. Its core earnings, known as Ebitda, were down 3% year-on-year to $7.7-billion.
The $57-billion company, co-owned by billionaire Vladimir Potanin and aluminium producer Rusal, "has drawn an important lesson from this incident," it said in a statement, adding it had dramatically reviewed its approach to environmental risk management.
Nornickel shares were little changed in Moscow on Tuesday, underperforming the benchmark index, which was up 0.3%.