July 23 (SeeNews) - Croatian food, beverage and pharmaceuticals producer Podravka [ZSE:PODR] said on Tuesday its first-half consolidated net profit rose to 140 million kuna ($21.2 million/19 million euro), from 120.7 million kuna in the like period last year.
The rise in profit was primarily the result of organic growth, Podravka said in a Zagreb bourse filing.
Consolidated sales revenue rose by an annual 5.1% to 2.1 billion kuna in January-June on the back of robust growth in both food and pharmaceutical segments, boosted by strong marketing activities.
The food segment achieved 1.7 billion kuna in sales revenue, up 5.1% on the year, while the pharmaceuticals segment saw a 5.2% growth in revenue to 455.2 million kuna.
In terms of sales revenue by regions, the highest year-on-year rate of increase of 13.2% was marked in Western Europe and Overseas Markets, where the company recorded revenue of 244 million kuna. Eastern Europe followed with sales growth of 9% to 160.5 million kuna.
In the Adria region, Podravka's largest market, the group booked sales revenue of 1.5 billion kuna, up 4.8% on the year, while Central Europe recorded 0.9% growth to 247.8 million kuna.
Podravka suffered a sales drop of 46.5% to 8.9 million kuna in the New markets segment.
Podravka's consolidated EBITDA rose 18.5% to 288.6 million kuna, while cash capital expenditures dropped 2.7% to 65.6 million kuna.
(1 euro = 7.38320 kuna)