March 2 (SeeNews) - Slovenian drug maker Krka [LJE:KRKG] said on Thursday its 2016 consolidated net profit dropped 31% on the year to 108.5 million euro ($114.1 million) due to increased costs.
The rise in costs resulted from a significant increase in production, major price erosion and the depreciation of Eastern and Central European currencies.
The company generated consolidated sales revenue of 1.2 billion euro last year, up 1% from 2015, while the volume of sales increased 11%, Krka said in a filing with the Ljubljana bourse.
Sales in markets outside Slovenia represented 1.1 billion euro, which is 93% of total sales.
The largest sales region was East Europe, where sales totalled 332.3 million euro, which is 28.3% of overall sales and represents a year-on-year increase of 1%.
The second largest region was Central Europe, where Krka generated 24.4% of overall sales. The value of sales in the region increased by 2% to 286.7 million euro.
The third region in terms of sales value was West Europe where Krka generated 24.1% of overall sales and revenues totalling 282.4 million euro in 2016, down 8% on the year.
In the markets of Region South-East Europe product sales in 2016 amounted to 152.4 million euro (13% of overall Krka Group sales), an increase by 9% compared to 2015.
In Slovenia, alone, Krka's sales increased 4% to 85.1 million euro worth of products and services (of which 33.7 million euro were health resort and tourist services), representing 7.2% of overall sales.
Krka's consolidated EBITDA dropped 26% on the year to 228.2 million euro in 2016, while investments totalled 131.8 million euro.
At the end of 2016 the Krka Group had 10,889 employees, of which 4,955 (45.5%) worked in Slovenia and 5,934 (54.5%) abroad. From 2015, the number of employees increased by 325 (3%), with 277 hired abroad and 48 in Slovenia.
Krka expects to exceed the 2016 profit this year, and reach sales of 1.22 billion euro.
($=0.950331 euro)