November 2 (SeeNews) - Croatia's Meritus Ulaganja [ZSE:MRUL], the parent company of business process outsourcing (BPO) services provider M+ Group, said its consolidated net profit doubled to 25.7 million kuna ($4.0 million/3.4 million euro) in the first nine months of 2020, from 12.6 million kuna a year earlier.
Nine-month operating income also doubled, to 515 million kuna from 243 million kuna in the like period of 2019, while operating costs increased to 484 million kuna from 227 million kuna, Meritus Ulaganja said in its consolidated financial report published on Friday.
The pandemic has boosted demand for business processes and technology outsourcing services, the company's management board president, Darko Horvat, said in the statement.
"In addition, the excellent results of the M+Group were influenced by the high degree of diversification of clients, especially from sectors that responded successfully to the pandemic or were relatively less affected by the crisis," Horvat noted.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) soared to 86.2 million kuna in the first nine months of the current year from 27.4 million kuna a year earlier.
"EBITDA growth was mostly influenced by the acquisition of the company CMC, amounting to 40 million kuna, as well as an increase in efficiency in the Group's business, amounting to 19 million kuna," it added.
In January, M+ Group completed the acquisition of its Turkish peer CMC owned by UK-based private equity firm Mid Europa Partners, thus becoming the largest BPO company in Southeast Europe. It now employs more than 7,500 people and is one of the largest private companies in Croatia.
M+ Group currently provides services to more than 260 clients from 58 countries.
It has offices in 13 locations across five countries - Croatia, Turkey, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia.
The two largest shareholders of Meritus Ulaganje are local businessmen Manica Pirc Oreskovic with 29.14% and Stjepan Oreskovic with 29.13%, while the remainder belongs to smaller shareholders, the group's statement read.
(1 euro = 7.5689 kuna)