Bulgaria's Stara Planina Hold projects 28% drop in 2-mo cons sales

The company's revenue went down 25.5% year-on-year in January, reaching some 25.9 million levs, Stara Planina Hold said in a bourse filing on Thursday. Last month, the group projected an annual fall of 23.5% in its January sales.

The total preliminary gross profit of the company's four main subsidiaries, including machine engineering company Hydraulic Elements and Systems [BUL:HES] and hydraulic equipment manufacturer M+S Hydraulic [BUL:MSH], amounted to some 2.58 million levs last month. Battery manufacturer Elhim Iskra [BUL:ELHM] and cosmetics producer Bulgarian Rose [BUL:ROZA] posted preliminary losses in January.

Only Bulgarian Rose is projected to increase its sales revenue in January-February, by 2.9% in annual terms. In contrast, M+S Hydraulic's sales are expected to drop by 33.3% on the year, while HES' and Elhim Iskra's sales are seen to decline by 21% and 14.3%, respectively.

Shares in Stara Planina Hold last traded on Tuesday when they closed at 10.80 levs on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, bourse data show.

(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)