December 16 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian diversified group Stara Planina Hold [BUL:5SR] said that its expects its consolidated net profit to drop by an annual 19% in 2019, due to lower sales on the group's main export markets in Western Europe.
Stara Planina Hold projects its consolidated sales revenue to decrease 8.6% year-on-year to 222 million levs ($126.3 million/113.5 million euro) in 2019, following a 16% fall in the second half alone, the holding company said in a bourse filing.
The group's performance is expected to continue to deteriorate in 2020, with an expected 7-8% decrease in net profit for the full year.
Consolidated revenue is seen falling 3% to 215 million levs in 2020, hurt by a 10% drop in the first half of the year.
In the expected challenging economic conditions, the group will seek to continue improving efficiency - after lowering the number of people employed by 1% in 2019, a further 4% decrease is planned in 2020.
The group's capital expenditure amounted to nearly 18 million levs in 2019.
The holding company's investment portfolio includes companies from the sectors of machine building, electrical engineering and perfumery and cosmetics.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)