News
Maxima Grupė demonstrated good 2020 semi-annual financial results, despite COVID-19 impact
“Maxima Grupė revenue grew up by 6.3% in the first half of 2020 versus the same period last year, as further expansion in Poland continued. Strong first quarter performance combined with good cost control allowed to reach EBITDA of EUR 163 million, despite negative impact from COVID-19” said Maxima Grupė’s Chief Financial Officer Vitalij Rakovski.
Maxima Grupė’s consolidated revenue grew by 6.3% to EUR 2.05 billion, with main growth coming from expansion in Poland. Consolidated like-for-like (LFL) retail revenue growth was 1.2%, with strong first quarter result (+5.2%), and negative second quarter (-3.4%). Group’s revenue growth was negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the second quarter.
Revenue growth in the Baltic States was moderate at 3.9% and LFL was negative of -1.5%. In Lithuania LFL was slightly positive, meanwhile, in Latvia and in Estonia it was negative. Latvian economy in 2020 suffers the most out of all Baltics countries partly due to preexisting conditions coming from year 2019, such as fall in transit cargos and contracting financial sector due to structural changes. Together with COVID-19 impacts, it resulted a negative LFL revenue change of -1.6% for Maxima Latvija. In Estonia LFL remained negative as challenges in competitive environment continued.
Meanwhile, revenue growth in Poland and Bulgaria remained solid, 12.2% and 23.4% respectively, with larger part coming from expansion. High LFL revenue growth in both countries was mainly driven by high inflation levels, rather than volume growth.
COVID-19 pandemic accelerated consumer shift to e-commerce and as a result revenue through e-commerce channel doubled in the first half of 2020 compared with the same period last year.
|
January-June 2020 |
Revenue change |
LFL revenue change |
|
Maxima Grupė, consolidated |
6.3% |
1.2 % |
|
Maxima LT (Lithuania) |
4.0% |
0.7% |
|
Maxima LV (Latvia) |
4.9% |
-1.6% |
|
Maxima EE (Estonia) |
2.2% |
-2.5% |
|
Stokrotka (Poland) (LFL local currency) |
12.2% |
6.3% |
|
T-Market (Bulgaria) |
23.4% |
6.7% |
|
E-commerce (Baltics) |
100.9% |
- |
|
Revenue change eliminates Group intercompany transactions Like-for-like (LFL): same-store growth (not taking new or renovated stores into account) |
||
Despite the negative impacts from COVID-19, for the six months ended 30 June 2020, Maxima Grupė’s consolidated EBITDA increased by EUR 21 million compared to the same period last year and reached EUR 163 million. EBITDA margin improved from 7.4% in the first half of 2019 to 8.0% in comparable period in 2020. EBITDA improvement was driven by overall strong performance coming from the first quarter of 2020 and good cost control mainly coming from Lithuania and Poland.
Negative COVID-19 impact to the Group’s profit before tax is estimated in the range of EUR 5 to 10 million.
Capital investment levels in the first half of 2020 were stable of EUR 47 million compared to EUR 50 million in the same period in 2019, due to investment review measures taken during lockdown periods in the countries where Group operates.
Group’s debt level remained stable, with net debt (including lease liabilities) to EBITDA ratio being 3.2x as of end of June 2020, which implies that business model is resilient to negative economic cycles.
