UBM Group Reports Excellent Results

UBM Group, the largest animal feed manufacturer in Hungary, closed the first six months of the 2022/23 financial year with the best half-year in its nearly three-decade history. UBM, the only agro-industrial company listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE), generated sales revenue of HUF 122.67 billion and EBITDA of HUF 6.00 billion in the period from July 1 to  December 31, 2022, and the Group also improved its profitability, as it increased its profit after tax to HUF 1.89 billion.

According to a press release issued by UBM, it intends to continue its investments and international expansion, and the group intends to significantly increase the proportion of small investors in its ownership structure.

In the second half of 2022, UBM's activities and the overall market environment will be affected by three main factors: a rising interest rate environment, rising gas and electricity prices and rising inflation worldwide. Despite the prolonged financial and economic difficulties, UBM had an outstandingly successful half-year, generating the highest 6-month revenue and EBITDA in its history.

The group recorded revenues of HUF 122.67 billion in the first half of the 2022/23 financial year to December 31 last year, up 33.8% from HUF 91.71 billion in the same period of the previous financial year. At the same time, UBM's EBITDA for the six months to December 31 last year increased by 158.6% to HUF 6.00 billion, up from HUF 2.32 billion in the base period.

In addition to revenue, the Group also saw a strengthening in the profitability line: in the first six months of the 2022/23 financial year, UBM's profit after tax increased by 48.8% to HUF 1.89 billion, up from HUF 1.27 billion in the six months to December 31 2021.

UBM's two separate operating segments are commodity wholesale (the classic trading activities of wheat, corn, barley, oilseeds, soybean meal, soybeans and mid-proteins) and feed production and feed materials trading. "The trading business EBITDA of HUF 3.72 billion and EBITDA margin of 4.1% exceeded all our expectations, while the manufacturing business EBITDA of HUF 2.31 billion and EBITDA margin of 5%, although slightly below the expected level, is an encouraging result," according to the CEO of the Group, Péter Horváth.