UkrAVTO Group, a large player on the Ukrainian car market, in Q1 2009 saw UAH 79.2 million of pretax profit, the corporation press service reported on Thursday.
According to the report, its EBITDA stood at UAH 247.7 million.
The corporation's companies in January to March increased the volume of provided services and sales of spare parts by 30% year-over-year, and the value of car services came to UAH 97.6 million, while spare parts worth UAH 271.6 million were sold.
"Now, we can say that the corporation's management in a short period of time managed to adequately estimate the situation, make tough management decisions and introduce them at all levels, receiving results in Q1, 2009," the press service said, citing the head of the financial and economic department at UkrAVTO, Serhiy Polischuk.
He said that the operation restructuring touched almost all business processes at the company: the structure was changed, tough optimization of expenses was introduced, and decision-making and planning process were centralized.
The press service said that in Q1, 2009 the share of exports in total revenue of Zaporizhia Car Plant, which is part of the corporation, grew from 30% to 50%, thanks to the retaining of the existing markets in Russia, Armenia, and Belarus, and entering new markets – Kazakhstan, Moldova and Azerbaijan. In addition, the car plant started supplying spare parts for Lanos cars to Egypt.
The company said that the corporation managed to maintain the financial liquidity at the efficient level, fulfill its commitments to many suppliers, banks, and retain the equal structure of car stocks. The favorable price positioning led to the stirring up of demand and increased inflow of circulating funds.
"The hryvnia strengthening over recent weeks allows making prices more attractive for consumers and spur up company's sales for some brands," reads the report.
The corporation also said that thanks to the prolongation of credit lines, which were to be paid in early 2009, the group managed to cut the credit burden over the past seven months by $230 million.
The press service also said that in spring 2009, UkrAVTO won a tender on the official distribution of Mitsubishi Fuzo commercial vehicles in Ukraine.
As reported, this year, a distribution agreement with KIA Motors was signed this year.
