OREANDA-NEWS. May 13, 2014. Business at the beginning of this year has started more slowly than in previous years. In the accounting quarter, the Group’s consolidated revenue was 9.7 million euros, which was 15% lower compared to the reference period.

More than 80% of the return on sales originated from the sale of electrical equipment. The sale of electrical equipment decreased 16.5% in the reporting quarter, which was also the main reason for the decline in sales revenue. 64.0% of the Group’s products and services were sold in foreign markets, outside Estonia (Q1 2013: 65.3%) and 81% revenues received from the Group’s companies home markets - Estonia, Finland and Lithuania.

The biggest contribution to the decline in sales volumes came from the Lithuanian segment, where sales revenue decreased by one half with respect to the comparable period and this was mainly caused by the decline in revenue received from various projects. The biggest markets of the Group are Estonia and Finland; accordingly, the sales volumes of the Group are strongly influenced by the events taking place on these markets. In the reporting quarter, 45% (Q1 2013:47%) of the Group’s products and services were sold on the Finnish and 36% (Q1 2013:35%) in Estonian market.

The Finnish industrial sector remains in recession, and once again we have to recognise the 10% drop in the sales volumes of the technology sector, compared to Q1 2013. Finland is the biggest market of the Group; accordingly, the sales volumes of the Group are strongly influenced by the events taking place on this market. In the reporting quarter, 45% of the Group’s products and services were sold on the Finnish market (Q1 2013: 47%).

In the reporting quarter, the operating expenses decreased by 14.5%, including the cost of sales by 1.7 million euros or by 17.7% to 8.0 million euros. Since the cost of sales decreased at a pace that exceeded the return on sales, the gross profit margin improved by 2.5 percentage points to 17.6% in comparison to the indicator for the comparable period.

In the reporting quarter, the distribution costs increased by 52,000 euros to 651,000 euros, the rate of distribution costs to revenue accounted for 6.7% (Q1 2013: 5.3%). Administrative expenses increased by 4% to 976,000 euros, and the rate of administrative expenses to revenue accounted for 10.1%, having increased by 1.9 percentage points.

In Q1 2014, the average 440 people worked in the Group on the average by 22 persons less than in the reference period. In the first quarter, employee wages and salaries totalled 2,170 (Q1 2013: 2,108) thousand euros. The average wages per employee per month amounted 1,645 (2013 Q1: 1, 520) euros. In the second half of 2013, the salaries of the Group’s employees were adjusted, which was also the main cause of the increase in fixed costs. In the reporting quarter the labour and salary costs increased by 2.9%, which also brought with it a decrease in the operating profit margin.

The Group’s operating profit of Q1 2014 was 56 (Q1 2013: 188) thousand euros and EBITDA 441 (Q1 2013: 555) thousand euros. Return of sales for the accounting quarter was 0.6% (Q1 2013: 1.7%) and return of sales before depreciation 4.6% (Q1 2013: 4.9%).

Group consolidated from the associated company a profit of 324,000 (Q1 2013: 75,000) euros.

Overall, the consolidated net profit of the Q1 2014 was 371,000 (Q1 2013: 717,000) euros, and the Q1 2013 figure includes the profit from the sale of financial assets in the amount of 453,000 euros.  The share of the owners of the Company in Q1 2014 was 391,000 (Q1 2013: 698,000) euros and EPS was 0.02 (Q1 2013: 0.04) euros.