Iaşitex Iaşi posts loss in H1 2009

After reporting major profits these past few years, Iaşitex SA (symbol: IASX, on the Rasdaq tier of the Bucharest Stock Exchange) posted a loss of 66,602 lei, compared to last year"s profit of 22,088,536 lei.

Operating revenues dropped y/y, from 63,484,790 lei in June 2008, to 27,029,406. In spite of lower operating expenses, which shrank from 36,132,075 lei in June 2008, to 25,697,819 lei in H1 2009, operating profit for the first half dropped to 1,331,587 lei, (27,352.715 lei in H1 2008), whereas financial operations brought about a loss of 1,394,522 lei. Turnover however increased 10.9%, to 27,110,000 lei.

In the report the company sent to the BSE, the management says the company"s output amounted to 21,357,000 lei, down from the planned 23,174,000 lei, due to lower orders from IKEA. In spite of this year"s negative results, the management of Iaşitex SA says that "there are no short term trends, events or factors that could affect the company"s cashflow. The company has all the conditions to operate at full capacity, cash its receivables on time and to pay all its debts".

The company"s main line of business is producing threads, cotton weaves, cotton substitutes and textiles. The company"s main shareholder is "A2 Impex" SRL Ploieşti, part of the group of companies "Serviciile Comerciale Române" (Romanian Retail Services), which acquired a 51% stake in the company in 2003 from the former APAPS. According to the latest filing, the company has the following shareholder structure: "A2 Impex" SRL Ploieşti (59.84%) SIF2 Moldova (31.52%) AVAS (3.47%), and other shareholders (5.18%).