LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), August 22 (SeeNews) – Slovenian home appliances maker Gorenje [LJE:GRVG] said on Monday it turned to a first-half consolidated net profit of 2.1 million euro ($2.4 million) from a net loss of 6.9 million euro in the same period last year.
The company's consolidated revenue rose by an annual 4.2% to 581.3 million euro in January-June, while EBITDA jumped 19.5% to 40.2 million euro, it said in a Ljubljana bourse filing.
The generated revenue accounts for 48.4% of the 1.2 billion euro target for 2016, however the group still hopes to reach the key parameters of its business plan by the end of the year.
Overall, Gorenje realised 51.3% of its total revenue in Eastern Europe, or 298.4 million euro (up 6% year-on-year), 39.9% in Western Europe, or 232 million euro (up 3.2%), and 50.9 million euro in other regions (down 1.4%).
Lower sales in overseas markets were a result of different dynamics of orders from industrial/OEM deal partners, and a drop in sales in the Middle and Far East, especially Saudi Arabia, Gorenje explained.
Revenue generated by the core activity Home rose 5.6% to 499.5 million euro. Domestic appliance sales rose 10.6% in Eastern Europe (Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, and Macedonia), and by over 25% in Russia and Ukraine.
In Western Europe, Gorenje's sales grew by more than 5% in the profitable markets of Benelux, especially the Netherlands. In Germany and the UK, the company succeeded in increasing the sales relative to the comparable period of last year, however, lower sales under the Gorenje brand persisted in Scandinavia and France.
Gorenje brands increased their market share in the 28 EU markets by 0.2 percentage points. Growth was recorded in all key product categories, and the pricing index remained stable. The company claims a 3% market share in volume terms.
The company invested 18 million euro in development in the first half and plans to hire more than 250 workers as of September 1 at the Velenje plant to meet a trend of growing sales volume in the second half of the year.
In July, Gorenje said that Japan's electronics group Panasonic Corporation will make a due diligence of the company in view of potentially raising its stake in it from the current 10.74%. The home appliances maker suggested on Monday that the due diligence was performed, but gave no further information.
The biggest shareholder in Gorenje is the state-owned pension fund manager Kapitalska Druzba with 16.37%, followed by the World Bank's private sector investment arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), with 11.8%, and Panasonic with 10.74%.
($=0.8840 euro)
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