"What stands out is an improvement in efficiency and thereby operating profitability, while a decrease in market prices caused us to fall slightly behind last year's as well as planned sales," the company's chairman Tomaž Benčina said.

Cinkarna Celje managed to offset a slowdown in the German construction sector with increase sales in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.

The company expects that the results for the whole of 2014 will be similar to those for the first nine months.

Capital expenditure was up 71% on the first nine months last year to EUR 6.36m. Most of the investment went into the upgrade of titanium dioxide pigment production.

The Celje-based company specialising in production of titanium dioxide pigment and other materials for construction, including zinc, printing plates, glues and elastomer, recently became the latest from a list of 15 slated for privatisation to be put on sale.

A consortium of shareholders published on 1 October a public call for expressions of interest in a 70.79% share.

Cinkarna currently has annual net revenues in excess of EUR 160m and about 1,000 employees, making it one of the biggest employers in the region around the city of Celje.

It has a dispersed ownership structure, with several state-owned funds, banks and mutual funds holding important stakes.