January 30 (SeeNews) - Steel radiator manufacturer Korado Bulgaria [BUL:4KX], part of Czech Republic-based Korado Group, said on Thursday that its net profit dropped by an annual 19% to 4.3 million levs ($2.4 million/2.2 million euro) in 2019, hurt by lower revenue.
Korado Bulgaria's turnover fell 3% year-on-year to 42.5 million levs last year, the company said in a statement, citing unaudited figures.
In terms of quantity, the company's radiator sales edged up 1% to 551,169 radiators. Domestic sales accounted for just 1.8% of the total quantity sold.
Sales to EU countries fell by 9.2% to 507,044 units, while sales to other countries soared to 80,586 units in 2019 from 29,562 units the year before.
Korado's steel panel radiator output fell to 455,025 units last year from 467,497 units in 2018, while towel rail radiators produced increased to 87,390 from 83,800 in 2018.
The company's operating expenses edged down to 37.8 million levs in 2019 from 38.2 million levs the year before, due to lower expenses for materials.
Despite its lower profit in 2019, Korado intends to retain the size of its dividend distribution unchanged, it said. Korado distributed a gross dividend of 0.29 levs per share for 2018, and an interim gross dividend of 0.10 levs for the first half of 2019.
Korado Bulgaria shares closed at 6.35 levs on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange on Wednesday and are now up 1.6% year-to-date.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)