July 2 (SeeNews) - Croatia's Fortenova Group, the successor to the collapsed concern Agrokor, said on Thursday it posted adjusted consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of 93.6 million kuna ($13.9 million/12.4 million euro) in the first quarter of 2020.
The group gave no comparative year-ago figures in a statement published on its website.
It said its consolidated revenue, net of Slovenian retailer Mercator whose shares are not yet transferred to its ownership, amounted to 4.8 billion kuna in January-March.
Fortenova also said that last year it posted a consolidated adjusted EBITDA of 1.7 billion kuna and pro forma consolidated revenue of 24 billion kuna. The figures refer to the pro forma consolidated results of Fortenova grupa d.d. and the 102 companies, net of Mercator.
The group's core segments, which include 17 companies active in retail and wholesale, food and agriculture, generated a total of 24.5 billion kuna in revenues in 2019, up 3.6% compared to 2018.
At the same time, the unconsolidated EBITDA on the core segments jumped 13% on the year to 1.9 billion kuna.
Last year's total revenue on the retail and wholesale segment alone rose 3% to 13.9 billion kuna, the revenues of the food segment were up 4% to 8.3 billion kuna, and the agriculture sector also saw a 4% rise to 2.6 billion kuna.
The food segment in particular made the biggest contribution of 1.1 billion kuna to the group's total EBITDA in 2019, supported by strong sales of edible oils and meat.
Retailer Konzum reported 26% growth in EBITDA and 4.5% increase in revenue in 2019.
"The growth of all key performance indicators, particularly EBITDA, as well as the fact that we secured a smooth operational continuity, have proved that the numerous transformational processes that have been taking place at Fortenova grupa with a view to achieving significant cost control and improving efficiency, have borne fruit," Fortenova CEO Fabris Perusko said in the statement.
The business operations of troubled food-to-retail concern Agrokor were transferred to the newly formed Fortenova Group in April 2019 under a settlement agreement with Agrokor's creditors endorsed by a Zagreb court in June 2018.
Agrokor, which employs some 60,000 people in the region, has been undergoing restructuring led by a court-appointed crisis manager under Croatia's special law on companies of systemic importance passed in April 2017 with the aim of shielding the country's economy from big corporate bankruptcies.
In 2018, when the group still operated under the name of Agrokor, it reported a net loss of 1.4 billion kuna on an operating profit of 2.4 billion kuna and consolidated revenues of 38.8 billion kuna.
(1 euro = 7.55969 kuna)