(Alliance News) - KME Group Spa announced Monday evening that its board of directors approved the half-year report as of June 30, reporting a consolidated profit of EUR21.2 million from EUR6.7 million in the same period last year.

Revenues amounted to EUR1.07 billion from EUR1.03 billion in the same period a year earlier. Net of raw materials, revenues rose 52 percent to EUR348.2 million from EUR229.0 million.

Ebit was EUR80.1 milioin from EUR30.0 million in the first half of 2022.

Group shareholders' equity is EUR575.7 million from EUR569.5 million as of December 31, 2022.

Net financial debt amounts to EUR207.7 million from EUR267.5 million at the end of 2022 and includes a liability of EUR94.5 million related to the accounting of the sale and lease back transaction on KME SE's Osnabrück property.

KME SE, the main subsidiary, ended the half-year with a sharp decline in sales volumes, but with profitability on the upswing. Ebitda, in fact, rose to EUR103.2 million from EUR35.6 million in the first half of 2022.

As for the future, the group is monitoring the development of the general political and economic situation, including the effects of the evolving conflict in Ukraine, and has noted signs of deceleration starting in the fourth quarter and progressively more pronounced in the first months of the second half of the year.

"There appears to be a clear destocking strategy underway by customers in almost all industries, aimed at disposing of the high levels of inventory accumulated during 2022 to counter the supply chain disruption experienced post-lockdown," the company's note reads.

"At the moment, management is unable to estimate when a turnaround will be realized and has therefore prepared all available flexibilization and cost-cutting actions in the various countries in order to cushion as much as possible the potential negative effects on the group's profitability and generation of financial resources. With certainty, however, it can be predicted -- based on the current order book and the trend of order intake in the first months of the second half of the year -- that the results of the second half of the year will be lower than those of the first half."

"On the other hand, the possibility remains open for the parent company and the group as a whole to benefit from the enhancement of other equity investments or non-core assets in the copper business through divestments; if realized, such divestments could positively impact the group's debt," the note concludes.

KME's stock closed in the green by 0.2 percent at EUR0.99 per share.

By Chiara Bruschi, Alliance News reporter

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