Ukrposhta increases its net loss by 27% with revenue growth by 20% in H1 2023
JSC Ukrposhta in January-June 2023 increased its net loss by 27.0% compared to the same period last year, to UAH 653.7 million.
According to the state-owned company's report in the information disclosure system of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission, its net income grew by 20.0%, to UAH 5.58 billion.
In the first half of this year, the only client whose income exceeded 10% of Ukrposhta's total income was the Pension Fund. The amount of remuneration from it for the delivery of pensions and other social benefits reached UAH 1.421 billion compared to UAH 1.423 billion for the same period last year.
Revenues from the provision of national postal services rose by 33.2%, to UAH 3.003 billion. In particular, from the delivery of parcels and small packages they grew by 46.5% to UAH 1.582 billion, from the distribution of written correspondence by 3.1%, to UAH 667.46 million, from international postal exchange – by almost 2.1 times, to UAH 456.57 million, while from registration on prepayment and delivery of periodicals decreased by 45.1%, to UAH 103.7 million.
Financial and related services brought Ukrposhta in January-June 2023 only 0.3% more than in January-June 2022 – UAH 2.09 billion, largely due to the stability of the Pension Fund remuneration.
At the same time, income from postal transfers increased by 75.9%, to UAH 130.9 million, while accepting payments brought in 7.1% less – UAH 497.37 million.
Finally, sales of own and consignment goods rose by 54.6%, to UAH 486.62 million.
Ukrposhta said that the share of foreign income in revenue increased in the first half of this year to 8.2% from 4.7% in the first half of last year, and in total reached UAH 456.57 million. In particular, income from counterparties in Latvia jumped almost 4.4 times, to UAH 228.17 million, in Estonia by 62 times, to UAH 56.63 million, in Poland by 2.3 times, to UAH 28.4 million, and in Germany by 33.8%, to UAH 15.48 million.
In the first half of 2023, the company managed to receive a gross profit of UAH 31.15 million versus a gross loss of UAH 32.3 million in the first half of 2022.
However, due to the increase in administrative expenses and sales expenses, the operating loss even increased slightly compared to the same reporting period last year – by 9.8%, to UAH 747.04 million.
As of June 30, 2023, Ukrposhta's current liabilities exceeded its current assets by UAH 2.81 billion, while as of December 31, 2022 by UAH 1.97 billion.
The company said that it continues to operate in the context of the war with the Russian Federation. As of the reporting date, parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions remain occupied, on the territory of which about 12% of post offices are located. At the moment, there are almost 25,500 points of presence (they employ 45,000 employees), the report says.
Ukrposhta continues to implement its main strategic investment projects. In particular, the transition to mobile branches in rural areas has been completed – the project was implemented with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The next step is planned to automate mobile branches by the end of 2023, which will allow the Ukrposhta network to be fully automated.
The company also announced the implementation of an ERP system module; the transition to a new centralized structure without separate branches is planned to be completed in the third quarter of 2023. Also, other critical back-end and transactional IT systems are gradually being updated to improve the quality of service provision.
"After a certain pause due to Russian aggression, Ukrposhta resumed the project to modernize the logistics network (renting modern logistics centers and installing new sorting equipment). Three parcel sorting lines have already been launched and by the first quarter of 2024 it is planned to fully automate the main sorting hubs, which will cover the entire territory of the country," the report says.
In 2021 the company entered into a preliminary agreement for the purchase/sale of a controlling stake in one of the private commercial banks to obtain the opportunity to provide banking services in a network of branches. "The transaction will take place only subject to obtaining permission from the National Bank of Ukraine and fulfilling other terms of the agreement. As of the date of approval of the financial statements, the company’s management did not receive the appropriate permissions," Ukrposhta said.
Regarding bonds, the company reported that there are outstanding C series bonds for UAH 3.3 million at par with maturity on November 18 of this year.