JGL’s key business results in the first six months of 2018 are a significant increase in sales revenue, EBITDA growth and debt reduction from JGL’s own liquidity.
In the first half of this year, JGL Group realized a revenue of HRK 349.3 million from its business activities, of which HRK 269.3 million came from its core business – pharmaceutical business.
When looking at normalized data compared to the same period in 2017, which does not include one-time revenues from last year’s sales of brand products in Russia, there is a noticeable increase in business revenue of 25 percent, an increase in business expenses by 5 percent, and a significant decrease in operating losses compared to the previous period. There is a visible positive shift in all business indicators, from liquidity, through debt, to a great increase in business profitability.
"Business results of the JGL Group in the first half of 2018 have in part even exceeded our plans and expectations, which shows that the chosen path of transformation is good and that we should persist with it. The most encouraging aspect are the excellent sales results, where we manage to maintain, and in some cases even significantly increase our market shares. The credit for the good results of the first half of 2018 goes to all our employees – each one of them did an outstanding job, for which I am sincerely thankful”, said JGL’s CEO Mislav Vučić, commenting on JGL Group’s results for the first six months of this year.
The markets of Russia, Ukraine and Croatia have contributed the most to the increase in sales revenue of core business with 27 percent compared to the same period last year. Russia’s revenue growth is the result of an increase in the market shares of all key brands of the company – Aqua Maris, Meralys, Dramina, and Vizol S. In addition to the excellent results of the Russian market, for which the process of reducing inventories was successfully completed, significant growth rates have also been noted on the Ukraine market, which experienced significant recovery after the start of the crisis and noted a growth by as much as 90 percent when compared to the first half of 2017.
On the Croatian market, JGL grew faster than the market in the segment of OTC products (OTC drugs and dietary supplements), ensuring growth in its overall business, despite constant pressures on prescription drug prices. Looking at the second quarter of 2018, JGL’s core business experienced a 19 percent increase in sales, which was also generated mostly by the markets of Russia and Ukraine.
It is worth pointing out that in the first six months of 2018, through partners and via B2B models of contract manufacturing and licensing, JGL started to sell their products on 17 new markets and, in the same period, launched 28 new products and realized 12 projects of their own development.
Significant changes in JGL’s assets are visible in the area of short-term assets in the sense of reducing trade receivables, resulting from faster collection of receivables. With regard to liabilities, there is a noticeable decrease in long-term and short-term liabilities to banks and leasing. Namely, the surplus of liquid assets is directed at the early repayment of the long-term EBRD loan in the amount of HRK 33.2 million.