Group revenue dropped 12.7% to 865.8 million euro in the first nine months of the year, the company said in its unaudited interim report for January-September 2009 posted on its website.
Group EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) deteriorated by 40% on the year to 43.45 million euro while the EBITDA margin fell to 5.0% from 7.2% a year earlier.
Following two consecutive quarters of downward trend, the volume of business activities of the Gorenje Group began increasing in the last quarter of the nine-month period, a 5.9% growth compared to the second quarter of the year, the statement said.
"[...] the volume of orders began to increase in August, and according to projections by our subsidiary sales companies operating abroad and industry analysts, such trend will continue and grow even stronger by the end of the year 2009."
Gorenje said its Home Appliances Division achieved a 13.8% growth in sales in the three months to September compared to the second quarter and a 9.3% gain compared to the first quarter of the year.
"[..] the additional growth in the volume of business activities was achieved predominantly in the markets in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, which represented, until the beginning of the crisis, our fastest growing markets, both in quality and value as well as with a higher profitability rate."
The group's labour cost decreased by 6.6 million euro compared to the nine-month period of the year 2008 while payroll was cut by 784.
The bulk of investments through September, or 11.6 million euro, corresponding to 40.5 percent of the total planned investments for the year, were generated in the Home Appliances Division.
Gorenje Group said it expects to generate 20 million to 30 million euro of free cash flow by the year-end, provided that the current trends in home appliances and home interiors remain unchanged.
Investment in net current assets is seen at 26 million euro in the fourth quarter.
Gorenje shares, part of the broader SBI20 index of the Ljubljana Stock Exchange, closed down 1.23% at an average price of 12.86 euro on Thursday.
($=0.6782 euro)
