August 30 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian software group Sirma Group Holding [BUL:SKK] said that its consolidated net profit excluding minority interest more than doubled to 3.7 million levs ($2.1 million/1.9 million euro) in the first half of 2019 from 1.4 million levs in the same period of 2018.
Sirma Group Holding's operating revenue edged up to 29.2 million levs in the January-June period of 2019 from 28.9 million levs in the comparable period of last year, the company said in an interim financial statement on Thursday.
The company's operating expenses slid to 24.9 million levs in the review period from 26.2 million levs the year before. Expenses for salaries fell to 9.1 million levs from 9.6 million levs a year earlier, while expenses for hired services decreased to 4.4 million levs from 6.0 million levs.
Sirma Group Holding's assets amounted to 139.4 million levs at the end of June, down from 145.7 million levs a year earlier.
On Thursday, the software group announced that it is seeking an investor in its semantic technologies and GraphDB semantic graph database. Luxembourg-based investment bank Corum Group International will consult Sirma Group Holding on the planned transaction.
The company failed to increase its capital earlier this year, as the total number of subscribed shares was under the minimum success threshold.
Sirma Group Holding is the biggest year-to-date decliner among Bulgarian Stock Exchange blue chips, with a 24.78% decrease to 0.68 levs per share.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)