Romanian plastic products manufacturer TeraPlast Group [BSE:TRP] said on Thursday it posted 3.31 million lei ($774,470/695,660 euro) profit in the first quarter of the year compared to 1.07 million lei loss in the same period of last year.
The group's turnover rose 34% year-on-year to 175 million lei in the January- March period, it said in a press release. The main contributors to this increase were the construction sector and an improved focus of the group’s sales team.
EBITDA jumped 76% to 13.1 million lei in the first quarter.
"We are on track to reaching the objectives of 2019 in terms of EBITDA and turnover and we are capitalizing on the investments made in the last two years," TeraPlast Group CFO Ioana Birta said.
Among the group's units, Wetterbest had the sharpest increase, of 73% on the year to 44 million lei in the three months through March.
TeraPlast SA turnover rose 34% to 68.8 million lei due to the start of water and sewage infrastructure projects financed by EU funds.
TeraSteel Romania and Serbia posted a 17% turnover rise to 55.7 million lei in the first quarter due to an increase of the customer base in the Balkans and the consolidation of existing partnerships, the group said.
In 2019 the group said it plans to invest more than 23 million euro ($25.6 million) in the expansion of its production capacities and diversification of its products portfolio.
The TeraPlast Group product portfolio comprises several business lines: installation, PVC joinery profiles, compounds, thermal insulating panels, windows, doors and metallic tiles.
The group expanded abroad in 2017, when it opened TeraSteel Serbia, the first Romanian privately-held production unit outside Romania since 1990.
The group's consolidated net profit rose by 24% on the year to 23.1 million lei in 2018.
TeraPlast Group shares traded 1.64% higher at 0.2480 lei as at 1543 CET on Thursday on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
(1 euro=4.7581 lei)