Asbis posts second quarter figures

by Stuart Wilson, Friday 17 August 2012

Siarhei Kostevitch, CEO and chairman at Asbis

Emerging markets distribution powerhouse Asbis has posted second quarter 2012 sales of US$365.8m – up 20.8% year-on-year. Gross profit margin for the quarter stood at 4.44% and Asbis recorded after-tax profits of US$319,000, comparing well to the US$3.96m loss recorded a year earlier.

Siarhei Kostevitch, CEO and chairman at Asbis, commented: “Although the second quarter is traditionally the weakest period during the year, we managed to significantly increase our revenues and gross profit and support our first half results. It is worth underlining that we managed this growth under tough market conditions, at a time of uncertainty about the situation on global markets.”

“Achievement of positive results was possible mostly due to the good geographical diversification of our operations and because of a much-improved product portfolio in many countries. We believe that margins will grow again in the second half of the year, which is traditionally much better in the distribution business,” he added.

Asbis’ revenues for the first half of 2012 were up 14.2% year-on-year at US$744.9m with after-tax profits of US$2.6m – a profit margin of 0.35%.

Kostevitch added: “In the first half of 2012, besides growth in the top line, we successfully managed to decrease our expenses at all levels. Selling expenses decreased by 5.49% and administration expenses by 9.63%. This was a result of rebuilding our cost structure and linking expenses more to gross profit than to revenues. Financial expenses also decreased significantly, by 17.27%.”

“With increased revenues and gross profit, and with very good hedging that shielded our results from any material currency losses, we were able to increase profits at all levels, with the most significant change at the level of net profit, which grew to almost US$2.6m, compared to a loss of about US$3m last year. All of these issues, and the structural changes we have implemented, allow us to expect that in the second half of the year we will continue a healthy and profitable business,” he added.

The Former Soviet Union was Asbis’ largest market in the first half of 2012, accounting for sales of US$300m – up 15.3% year-on-year. First half Middle East and Africa (MEA) sales jumped 23.2% to US$115.4m, while revenues from Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic States jumped 12% to US$249.8m.

Asbis adds Cisco rights in Slovakia

Asbis Slovakia has been appointed as an official in-country distributor for networking giant Cisco. Asbis Slovakia will supply the entire range of Cisco products, solutions and services under the terms of the agreement.

"The distribution channel is one of the key components of Cisco’s business strategy in Slovakia," said Vladimir Mlynárčik, distribution channel manager at Cisco Slovakia.

"After a long consideration period of the distribution channel, we are delighted to appoint the experienced Asbis Slovakia VAD team," Mlynárčik added.