RHJ turns H1 profit, helped by one-offs

30 November 2009 @ 06:00 pm EDT

Belgian holding company RHJ International reported a narrower first-half operating loss on Monday and a rare net profit due to one-off gains from industrial activities it ultimately plans to divest.

A worker holds a sign as others arrive at the Opel assembly plant in Antwerp September 11, 2009. GM's board opted to sell Magna and its Russian partner Sberbank a 55 percent stake in Opel over a rival offer from Belgium-listed investor RHJ International. Magna has said it could close a Belgian plant in Antwerp and a British factory in Luton if it failed to lure new contracts that would use their capacity.

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RHJ, which last month announced a 225 million pound ($371 million) purchase of Commerzbank's wealth management unit Kleinwort Benson, said its first-half operating loss excluding impairment charges was 3.89 billion yen ($45 million), a year-on-year improvement of 35.8 percent.

The company, which has not made a full-year profit since it listed in 2005, turned a net profit in the first half of its year to March 2010 due to a capital restructuring of auto supplier Honsel and the deconsolidation of U.S. auto parts maker Metaldyne, which filed for bankruptcy in May.

Brussels-listed RHJ, a spin-off from U.S. private equity group Ripplewood Holdings LLC, failed in a bid to by European carmaker Opel earlier this year from General Motors.

The company now plans to expand its financial services operations and gradually exit its industrial investments.

Impairments of RHJ's automotive-heavy portfolio resulted in a 1 billion euro loss in the year to March 2009.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter) ($1=.6070 Pound) ($1=86.37 Yen)