June 3 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's Telelink Business Services Group, or TBS Group, [BUL:TBS] said that its consolidated net profit dropped to 1.15 million levs ($632,630/588,000 euro) in the first quarter from 4.96 million levs at the same period last year, mostly due to a decline in sales of goods and services.
The company's revenue declined to 32.1 million levs between January and March this year from 41.7 million levs in the first quarter of 2021, TBS Group said in an interim financial statement earlier this week.
Net revenue from sales fell 23% on the year to 31.5 million levs, mostly due to a 44% decline in intermediate sales compared to the first quarter of 2021 when a number of large projects in the Bulgarian public sector led to a record sales growth, the company noted.
Expenses at TBS Group declined to some 30 million levs in the review period from 35.1 million levs a year earlier, on the back of a drop in cost of goods sold and expenses for hired services, by 18% year-on-year in both cases. Expenses for personnel, however, rose by an annual 22% to 3.3 million levs.
TBS Group has wholly-owned subsidiaries in Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Albania, Romania, Germany and the US.
In late May, the group proposed to skip distribution of any additional dividend on top of the already paid out six-month dividend of 9.57 million levs announced in September 2021. The balance of TBS Group's 2021 net profit of 12.27 million levs will be allocated to the company's reserve fund.
Shares in TBS Group, which has a market capitalisation of 162.5 million levs, closed flat at 13.0 levs on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange on Thursday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)