May 3 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian car and lead-acid battery manufacturer Monbat [BUL:MONB] said that it grew its standalone net profit to 6.8 million levs ($3.8 million/3.5 million euro) in the first quarter of 2022 from some 4.3 million levs in the like period of 2022.
Monbat's revenue went up by an annual 2% to 90.7 million levs in the first three months of this year, with demand for car batteries picking up at the start of 2023 after a decline caused by the Ukraine war, the company said in an interim financial statement on Tuesday.
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Operating expenses also climbed, to 88.4 million levs in the review period from 84.1 million levs a year earlier, although expenses for materials and hired services were lower. Salary costs rose over 16% to 4.2 million levs, while the cost of goods sold edged up 3% to 20.7 million levs.
Monbat's exports were worth 40.3 million euro ($44.5 million) and formed 88.7% of the company's total sales revenue in the first quarter. France was the company's largest market, contributing 11.9% of total export revenue. Monbat had no sales in Russia in the January-March period, compared to 2.6% in the same period of 2022. Sales to Ukraine accounted for 10.15% of total exports in the first quarter.
Shares in Monbat were trading without change at 4.34 levs on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange as at 1054 CEST on Wednesday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)