Slovakia's only tire maker, Matador Puchov, reported pretax earnings of close to 328 million Slovak crowns ($7.6 million) over the first six months of this year.
Matador's operating profit climbed to 576.2 million crowns in 1H99, which is three times more than it was in the same period of 1998. The sale of some fixed assets contributed to the considerable growth of this figure, gains that were slightly dampened by exchange rate losses of over 104 million crowns.
