Bulgarian Stara Planina Hold 9-mo Sales Fall 59% to 15.1 Mln Euro, To Sink 57% in Jan-Oct

Sales of blue-chip hydraulic equipment producer M+S Hydraulic, in which the holding owns a 30.9% stake, fell by 54.2% between January and September to 29.3 million levs and are expected to fall 54.9% to 32.2 million levs through October, Stara Planina Hold said in a statement.

M+S Hydraulic's nine-months net profit was 289,000 levs, the statement said but provided no comparative figures. In September alone the company had a 144,000 levs net profit.

Stara Planina Hold also said the nine-month sales of its car battery maker Elhim Iskra fell by 49.9% to 14.1 million levs, while those of its other hydraulic equipment maker, Hydraulic Elements & Systems (HES) declined by 65.5% to 12.8 million levs.

The holding said it expects the ten-month sales of these two companies to fall by 48.9% and 63.6%, respectively, to 16.3 million levs and 14.8 million levs. Elhim Iskra posted a net profit of 1.2 levs through September this year, while HES had a net loss of 35,000 levs.

Shares of Stara Planina Hold closed 4.65% higher at 1.96 levs in a volume of 5,025 shares on Friday.

No shares of M+S Hydraulic and HES changed hands on Friday. Elhim Iskra stocks surged 4.41% to 2.04 levs as just 77 shares were traded.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)