German copper company Aurubis AG (NDA.XE) said Wednesday that it expects operating profit in its fiscal year ending Sept. 30 to increase, despite posting lower first-quarter earnings.

Net profit in the three months to Dec. 31 came in at EUR97 million, down 19.8% from EUR121 million a year earlier.

Revenue was EUR2.73 billion, up 31.3% from EUR2.08 billion, driven by rising copper prices and robust demand, Aurubis said.

The Hamburg-based company had previously said that first-quarter pretax profit was EUR135 million, down 21.5% from EUR172 million a year earlier.

It also swung to an operating pretax loss of EUR21 million from an operating profit of EUR47 million a year earlier, Aurubis said. The operating loss was due to extraordinary effects related to high inventory levels and significant metal price increases.

Aurubis said it expects non-recurring charges to "flatten out" over the course of its business year, and that operating earnings are expected to be above the previous year's. It didn't give actual figures.

-By Jan Hromadko, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 503; jan.hromadko@dowjones.com

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