May 31 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian express delivery company Speedy [BUL:0SP] said that its consolidated net profit rose to 3.7 million levs ($2.1 million/1.9 million euro) in the first quarter of the year from 1.8 million levs in the same period of 2018.
The company's revenue grew by an annual 32.5% to 52.2 million levs in the January-March period, Speedy said in an interim financial statement on Thursday.
Speedy's domestic market revenue grew 23.6% on the year to 27.8 million levs, while revenue on foreign markets added 48.7% to 22.4 million levs.
The improved performance on foreign markets was largely due to the strong market position of Rapido Express and Logistics, which Speedy acquired last year.
The final price for Rapido Express and Logistics depends on the Rapido's financial performance in the 30 months following its acquisition, Speedy said at the time. The price is expected to equal 4.5 or 5 times the annual normalised earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Rapido.
Speedy also acquired software developer OMG Mobile last year for a price of up to 2 million euro, 75% of which is conditional upon OMG Mobile keeping its key developers by 2024.
The group completed 8.7 million deliveries in the review period, up 37.6% year-on-year.
Speedy's operating expenses increased to 48.1 million levs from 37.3 million levs a year earlier, as expenses for hired services rose 23.3% to 29 million levs and personnel costs grew 34.9% to 11.2 million levs.
Speedy invested 2.2 million levs in the review period, over half of which in the purchase of new vehicles.
Speedy's largest shareholder at the end of March was local Speedy Group, with a 65.09% stake, followed by France's GeoPost with a stake of 24.81%.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)