Bulgaria's Sirma Group books 21% y/y drop in H1 net profit

Sirma Group Holding's total revenue went up to 40.9 million levs in the review period from 30.9 million levs a year earlier, the company said in an interim financial statement last week.

The company's revenue from sales of software services grew 47.7% on the year to some 18 million levs in the January-June period. Revenue from sales of IT equipment also increased, by 24.5% to 11.1 million levs.

Operating expenses also rose, by a yearly 44.4% to just over 37 million levs in the first half of 2022, mostly on the back of a 60% jump in cost of salaries to some 16 million levs.

The holding expects its two key business lines, IT services and software, to continue growing in the rest of 2022, albeit at a moderate tempo, with software expanding 9.8% and IT services 6.8%, driven by rising demand in cloud technology, business and infrastructure software, and IT consulting.

Sirma Group has eight direct wholly- or majority-owned subsidiaries and owns indirectly 10 businesses, including in the US, Latin America and Germany.

Last week, the company announced the closing of the sale of its majority stake in subsidiary Sirma AI to London-based investment firm Integral Venture Partners, at an overall valuation of the target business of 28.5 million euro ($28.5 million).

As at 1053 CEST on Thursday, shares in Sirma Group Holding traded 3.14% higher at 0.82 levs on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)