The listed Estonian print and media holding Ekspress Grupp earned a net profit of 633,000 euros in the first quarter of this year compared with a profit of 179,000 euros posted for the same period a year ago.
Ekspress Grupp more than triples Q1 earnings
4th May 2013, 15:05
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Sales totaled 13.8 million euros, marking a reduction by 3 percent from the first three months of 2012, Ekspress Grupp told the stock exchange.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) totaled 1.5 million euros in the first quarter, 7 percent less than the year before.
"The keywords that characterize the quarterly result are the unexpected weakness of export markets of printing services that started in the second week of February, the deferred income of different cooperation projects of Delfi Lithuania and allowance for old receivables. As we managed to offset the fall in EBITDA with lower interest expenses, we are satisfied with the size of net profit," the company said.
"The better-than-expected result of the periodicals' segment was partly due to the DVD series ended in the first quarter of the year, which was sold together with the daily Eesti Paevaleht and which improved the results of the book publisher Hea Lugu and that of AS Eesti Ajalehed. The segment was also supported by the better-than-expected result of Express Post, the home delivery service of periodicals," it said.
In the online segment, Delfi Latvia managed to exceed last year's profit. Despite 7 percent sales growth, the profit of Delfi Estonia remained below last year's level.
In the printing services segment, revenue base was impacted by the slowdown in the export markets in the middle of the quarter. Responding to this has been problematic for the company due to capacity constraints, which do not allow to prepare for a sudden decline in orders from regular customers.
In the second quarter of 2013, Ekspress Grupp expects its revenue to remain at last year's level, EBITDA to decrease by about 7 percent compared with the year before, and net profit to increase by 30 percent.