Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Business

  • Isopan Est production rises to 1.3 million sq m in the first half of the year

    Isopan Est production rises to 1.3 million sq m in the first half of the year

    Isopan Est, the largest producer of thermal insulation panels in Romania, registered a 6% increase in production volume in the first half of the year, reaching a total of 1.3 million square meters of panels produced at the Popeşti-Leordeni factory.

    At the same time, the company’s profitability increased by 80%.

    Considering the production of 2.7 million sqm of thermal insulation panels forecasted for this year, Isopan Est produces about 18% of the total volume of panels made by Isopan group.

    About half of the production of Isopan Est made in the first six months of the year was exported to markets in the region, in Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovakia or Hungary, keeping a similar proportion to that of 2019.

    More than 70% of the demand for thermal insulation panels, both for the domestic market, as well as for exports, it is for panels with above average quality, made of steel with a thickness of more than 0.5 mm.

    At the same time, in the first six months of the year, Isopan Est registered a turnover of over 21 million euros and an 80% increase in profitability.

  • Central Europe CFOs reach pessimism peak amid uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic

    Central Europe CFOs reach pessimism peak amid uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic

    Central Europe chief financial officers have reached a pessimism peak as their confidence about the economic outlook and the wider business environment continues to fall amid the uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the latest Deloitte CE CFO Survey.

    The study was conducted on more than 300 leading finance professionals in six countries – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.

    Almost three quarters of the respondents (72%) stated they were less optimistic about their companies’ financial prospects than before the new coronavirus outbreak, with Polish leading the top of the pessimistic (79%), followed by Romanians (75%).

    The study also shows significant shifts in the perceived levels of uncertainty facing respondents’ businesses, considering that an average of 36% respondents felt a high level of external financial and economic uncertainty in the pre-outbreak edition of the survey, compared to almost 70%, in the latest edition.

    In this context, the majority of CFOs across all industries think that conditions in 2020 and in the beginning of 2021 will not be favourable for taking more risk in financial decisions. Romanians are at the top of the risk-averse financial leaders, with 96% of respondents, followed by Estonians (94%) and Polish (92%).

    When it comes to predictions about inflation, most of the respondents foresee growth in consumer price index in their countries, with the highest expected rates in Poland (5.2%) and in Romania (4.7%).

    The most significant threat to business over the next year in CFOs view is the reduction in domestic and foreign demand, according to the survey. As a consequence, 62% of respondents expect their companies’ revenues will decrease.

    When asked about the most appropriate ways to finance the business in the current context, CFOs see internal financing (51%) and bank borrowing (42%) as the most attractive sources of funding.

  • Austrian Post revenues at almost EUR 1 bn in the first half of 2020

    Austrian Post revenues at almost EUR 1 bn in the first half of 2020

    Austrian Post revenues amounted to EUR 981.9m in the first half of 2020, slightly higher than the prior-year level (+0.1 %). The dynamically growing parcel business showed a significant increase of 30.0 %, compensating for the decline in the Mail and Retail & Bank divisions. 

    The Mail Division accounted for 59.8 % of the Group revenue. In the Mail Division, the expected shortfalls resulted in a revenue decrease of 10.5 %. This is, on the one hand, due to a significant decline in conventional Letter Mail volumes triggered by the closure of many governmental offices and businesses.

    On the other hand, Direct Mail revenue was also significantly impaired by the government-imposed store closings in response to COVID-19.

    The revenue of the Parcel & Logistics Division was driven by organic growth from online orders as well as additional parcel volumes generated through the cooperation with Deutsche Post DHL Group since August 2019.

    The 34.6 % revenue decrease in the newly created Retail & Bank Division in the first half of 2020 is due to the inaugural launch of bank99 on 1 April 2020, whereas the first half of the previous year still included service fees from the previous banking partner of EUR 18.8m.

    The start-up of bank99 presents a significant special effect in 2020

    bank99 has been operating on the market since the beginning of April and will feature a focused offering of financial services.

    The bank has already attracted more than 42.000 customers in the first four months and recorded initial financial services revenue.

    The objective is to add new products to the financial services offering in the upcoming quarterly periods and generate positive earnings contributions by 2023.

    Accordingly, the Retail & Bank Division produced a negative earnings contribution of EUR 28.7m due to the start-up costs for bank99 and the impact related to COVID-19.

    Group EBIT in the first half of 2020 totalled EUR 48.2m, down from EUR 107.7m in the first half of 2019. Earnings per share equalled EUR 0.66, compared to EUR 1.17 in the previous year.

  • OTE Group revenues down 3% in second quarter of 2020

    OTE Group revenues down 3% in second quarter of 2020

    The OTE Group’s consolidated revenues decreased by 3.0% in Q2’20 to €918.2mn. In Greece, revenues were down 3.8% to €692.3mn, mainly due to the impact of COVID-19 on the mobile segment.

    In Romania, revenues were down 1.0% at €228.9mn.

    Total Operating Expenses amounted to €586.2mn in Q2’20, a 3.8% decrease versus Q2’19, reflecting stringent cost-control initiatives across the board.

    In Q2’20, the Group’s Adjusted EBITDA After Lease (AL) increased by 0.8% to €321.3mn, yielding an Adjusted EBITDA (AL) margin of 35.0%, up 130 basis points. In Greece, Adjusted EBITDA After Lease (AL) was down 1.7% to €285.1mn, and the Adjusted EBITDA (AL) margin improved 90 basis points to 41.2%.

    In Romania, Adjusted EBITDA After Lease (AL) grew 25.7% to €36.2mn, and the Adjusted EBITDA (AL) margin improved 330 basis points to 15.8%.

    The Group reported Operating profit before financial and investing activities of €137.7mn in Q2’20.

    In Q2’19, Group Operating profit before financial and investing activities had totaled €19.6mn, reflecting goodwill impairment charges related to its Romanian mobile operations.

    The Group’s Income Tax charge for Q2’20 amounted to €29.5mn, up from €17.5mn in Q2’19, mainly reflecting the positive one-off tax effect in the comparable quarter of the prior year.

    Adjusted Group profit after minority interests amounted to €118.4mn in Q2’20, compared to €98.5mn in Q2’19.

    Adjusted Capital Expenditures amounted to €151.1mn in Q2’20, down 15.2% from Q2’19, with investments in Greece and Romania standing at €118.0mn and €33.1mn, respectively.

    In Q2’20, the Group’s Adjusted Free Cash Flow after leases reached €184.8mn, up from €172.7mn in Q2’19, primarily reflecting lower Capex spending and lower income taxes paid in the quarte

  • MOL Group reported USD 152mn net loss for Q1 2020

    MOL Group reported USD 152mn net loss for Q1 2020

    MOL Group announced its financial results for Q1 2020. Large inventory and foregin exchange losses resulted in MOL reporting a USD 152mn net loss for Q1, the first sign of the pandemic-related crisis.

    Underlying operations were running strong until mid-March, as reflected by the USD 622mn Clean CCS EBITDA, however, the pandemic had already started to severely affect all business lines in the last 2-3 weeks of March and the situation further deteriorated in April.

    Due to the unpredictable external environment, 2020 EBITDA guidance was withdrawn and organic capital expenditure guidance was cut by more than 25%.

    Due to the extremely low oil prices from the beginning of March, Upstream EBITDA decreased to USD 185mn in Q1.

    Oil & gas production volumes were 110.6 mboepd, 4% lower than a year ago, due to the natural decline in CEE. In Q1, MOL, as an operator, made an oil and gas discovery offshore Norway with a preliminary estimate of recoverable resources between 12-71 million barrels.

  • Pirelli revenues down 31.6% compared to 30 June 2019

    Pirelli revenues down 31.6% compared to 30 June 2019

    Pirelli revenues at 1,816.4 million euro, down 31.6% compared to 30 June 2019 (-28.5% the organic variation) due to the strong reduction in demand and foreign exchange volatility, while the price mix improves.

    Adjusted Ebit at 66.7 million euro thanks to the contribution of efficiencies and cost containment actions that limited the impact of the reduction in demand and the slowdown (440.5 million euro in the first half of 2019).

    Total net result: -101.7 million euro (+307 million euro in the first half of 2019)

    Net cash flow: -757.5 million euro (-817.4 million euro in the first half of 2019, -640.5 million euro net of dividends distributed in 2019)

    Net financial position: -4,264.7 million euro substantially unchanged compared to -4,261 million euro as at 31 March 2020

    Liquidity Margin: 2,174.1 million euro as at 30 June 2020, the maturities on financial debt guaranteed for approximately 3 years

  • Skoda achieves operating profit of 228 million euros in H1 2020

    Skoda achieves operating profit of 228 million euros in H1 2020

    The Skoda Auto Group’s sales revenue was €7.55 billion in the first six months, but the operating profit still amounted to €228 million – despite the 39-day shutdown of the Czech plants and the disruption to the sales channels, particularly in April.

    Against this background, the return on sales stood at 3.0%. Skoda Auto delivered a total of 426.700 vehicles to customers from January to June.

    Provided the COVID-19 situation does not deteriorate significantly again, Skoda Auto expects the conditions on the world markets to stabilise gradually over the coming weeks and months.

    Investments in tangible assets remained at a high level of 261 million euros over the past six months.

    The manufacturer plans to launch 30 new models, derivatives, product upgrades or variants between 2019 and the end of 2022. 

  • Business demography in Bulgaria in 2018

    Business demography in Bulgaria in 2018

    The active enterprises with zero employees in Bulgaria represent the largest proportion of all active enterprises during the whole (2014 – 2018) period.

    In 2018 their number is 168.848 which are 47.1% of all active enterprises. There are 131.816 enterprises in the next ”1 – 4 employees” group which is 37.4% of the total number of active enterprises for 2018.

    The enterprises in the ”5 – 9 employees” group represent the smallest proportion of all – 7.2%.

    The number of persons employed in ”10 or more employees” group represents 69.4% of all employees for the 2014 – 2018 period while the proportion of the enterprises in this group is 7.8% of all active enterprises.

    Almost 11.4% of the total numbers of enterprises in the selected economic sectors are newborn in 2018.

    For the last five years the annual average percent for newborn enterprises was 11.9% of the number of active enterprises during this period.

    For the 2014 – 2018 period the highest share of newborn enterprises is in sector G – ”Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles” – 41.1%. At the same time the smallest share of newborn enterprises is in sector B – ”Mining and quarrying” with less than 0.1% on average for the whole period.

    Almost 80.6% of the enterprises born in 2017 survive one year later, as in the group of ”5 – 9 employees” this share is 88.4%.

  • Autodoc net sales at EUR 615.0m in 2019

    Autodoc net sales at EUR 615.0m in 2019

    Autodoc net sales increased by 48% year-on-year to EUR 615.0m (2018: EUR 415m). As a result, Autodoc achieved its own sales target of over EUR 600m.

    Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 50% to EUR 44.6m (2018: EUR 29.7m). The return on sales improved slightly to 5.0% (2018: 4.8%).

    Autodoc portfolio contains over 2.5 million products from 545 brand manufacturers for more than 44,000 configurations of 128 car brands.

    Since June 2020, Autodoc also runs a website in Ireland and is now represented in a total of 27 European countries.

    In the first quarter, the online dealer recorded a 30% increase in sales to EUR 165m (Q1 2019: EUR 127m). Sales growth for the first half of the year amounts to around 35%.

  • WDP earnings over 84 million euros in H1 2020

    WDP earnings over 84 million euros in H1 2020

    WDP earnings for H1 2020 amount to 84.3 million euros, an increase of 15% compared to H1 2019 (73.2 million euros). Earnings per share for H1 2020 are 0.49 euros, up 7.9% from 0.45 euros in H1 2019.

    The occupancy rate is 98.2% on 30 June 2020, stable compared with 98.1% on 31 December 2019. The average term (until the first termination date) of the WDP portfolio leases is 6.1 years (including solar panels).

    On 30 June 2020, the loan-to-value is 46.6% and the (proportional) debt ratio is 48.1%, compared with 45.0% and 46.7% respectively on 31 December 2019.

    WDP has a strong liquidity buffer of more than 550 million euros in unused credit lines.

    Under the 2019-23 growth plan, an investment volume of around 200 million euros could be identified in the first half of 2020, lifting the total within the growth plan towards 750 million euros, which corresponds to half of the envisaged investment growth.

  • Pizza Hut exit Greece and shut down all stores

    Pizza Hut exit Greece and shut down all stores

    Pizza Hut shut down all its 16 stores in Greece and 180 jobs were cut.

    Greek news agency, Amna, writes that a Pizza Hut source said: “In particular, in the last 12 years and despite the continuous years of economic losses we invested 23 million euros for the development of the chain in Greece while at the same time in the last decade we created and secured more than 450 jobs. Unfortunately, however, the coronavirus pandemic, which has created a crisis unprecedented in our country and internationally, has hit the catering sector hard and led to the worsening of existing difficulties and the inability to reverse the negative climate.”

    A few days ago NPC International, one of the largest franchisees of Pizza Hut in the USA, went bankrupt due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Pizza Hut Greece has fulfilled its obligations in full in accordance with the law, paying the relevant compensation plus special additional compensation and having paid all its debts to the employees.

  • Prysmian Group sales amounted to €4,985 million in H1 2020

    Prysmian Group sales amounted to €4,985 million in H1 2020

    Prysmian Group sales amounted to €4,985 million, with a -11.8% organic change. The good performance reported in North America, especially the Energy & Infrastructure market, allowed to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

    Overall, the whole Energy segment proved relatively resilient, despite reporting a negative growth.

    The Telecom segment shrank due both to the challenging comparison with the same period of 2019, and to the effects of the pandemic, which remarkably slowed down installation activities.

    Within the Projects segment, high-voltage cable and system production and installation were impacted by the pandemic, whereas the submarine cable business was able to partially offset the decline in sales volumes leveraging on the quality of its project execution capabilities.   

    Adjusted Prysmian EBITDA stood at €419 million

    The decline compared to €521 million for the first half of 2019 was mainly attributable to the decrease in sales.

    Adjusted EBITDA amounted to €222 million in the second quarter of 2020 (ratio to Sales at 9.3% vs 9.4% for the second quarter of 2019), up compared to €197 million in the first quarter of 2020 (ratio to Sales 7.6% vs 8.3% for the first quarter of 2019).

    The ratio of Adjusted EBITDA to Sales was 8.4% compared to 8.9% in H1 2019.

    EBITDA amounted to €407 million (€492 million in the first half of 2019), including net expenses for company reorganisation, net non-recurring expenses and other net non-operating expenses totalling €12 million (€29 million in the first half of 2019). 

    Operating income amounted to €173 million (€335 million in the first six months of 2019), due to the partial write-down of assets in the South Europe region for €43 million.

    Net profit was €78 million (€190 million for the first six months of 2019).

    Net Financial Debt decreased to €2,516 million at 30 June 2020 (€2,819 million at 30 June 2019; €2,140 million at 31 December 2019).