May 29 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian cosmetics maker Lavena [BUL:4L4] said on Friday that its consolidated net profit rose to 870,000 levs ($495,000/445,000 euro) in the first quarter of 2020 from 184,000 levs in the same period of 2019, backed by higher revenue.
Lavena's revenue grew to 5.7 million levs in the January-March period of 2020 from 4.3 million levs in the same period of last year, the company said in an interim financial statement.
Operating expenses increased to 4.7 million levs in the review period from 4.1 million levs the year before, mostly due to a rise in expenses for materials.
In February, Lavena won an EU grant of some 1 million levs for a project for expansion of its production capacity through the purchase of new equipment.
In December 2019, Lavena inaugurated the expansion of its production and logistics base in Shumen, following a 7 million levs investment. Lavena partially financed the project through a capital increase in early 2019, when it issued nearly 1.6 million shares raising some 5.6 million levs. The rest was financed with part of the proceeds of a 4.5 million levs investment loan, which the company took out in 2019 and has to repay by 2023.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)