May 29 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian diversified group Stara Planina Hold [BUL:5SR] said that it expects its consolidated sales in the first half of 2020 to fall by an annual 17.9% to 100.7 million levs ($57.4 million/51.5 million euro).
Sales in the second quarter alone are expected to fall by 25.7% to 44.5 million levs, the group said in a bourse filing on Thursday.
The most affected company by the coronavirus pandemic in Stara Planina Hold's portfolio is expected to be car battery maker Elhim Iskra, which has suffered a lot of cancelled orders from Italy, France and Russia. Elhim Iskra's sales are projected to fall by over 30% in the first half of 2020.
The machine building companies in the holding company's portfolio are also expected to be seriously affected by the coronavirus pandemic, Stara Planina Hold said.
Stara Planina Hold's investment portfolio includes companies from the sectors of machine building, electrical engineering and perfumery and cosmetics.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)