LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), September 6 (SeeNews) – Slovenian steel producer Slovenska Industrija Jekla (SIJ) said on Friday its group net profit soared to 81.2 million euro ($89.6 million) in the first half of 2019, from 18.8 million euro a year earlier.
"Net profit includes the profit from selling the Poultry Division, which is a testament to the successful management and sale of the Perutnina Ptuj Group," SIJ said in a filing to the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
In the first half of the year, the SIJ Group successfully completed the sale of Perutnina Ptuj Group to MHP Group, one of the leading international agricultural and food processing companies. The SIJ Group used the proceeds from the sale to lower its indebtedness, resulting in the decrease of its net financial debt to 165.4 million euro, from 320 million euro at the end of 2018.
SIJ's first-half consolidated revenues fell 2.1% on the year to 417.2 million euro, of which 84.4% on foreign markets,
The SIJ Group's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased to 122.9 million euro in the first half, from 43.8 million euro in the like period of 2018
The first-half EBITDA margin of 9.1% is 1.2 percentage points lower compared to same period last year, SIJ said.
The SIJ Group employed 3,845 people in the first half of 2019, down from 3,885 workers in the same period in 2018.
The SIJ Group is the largest vertically integrated metallurgical group in Slovenia. Its products occupy leading positions on European and global niche steel markets.
($ = 0.90577 euro)