Romania's Sphera Franchise Group boosts revenues but sees lower profit in H1

Sphera Franchise Group, the owner of the Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell franchises on the Romanian market, increased its revenues in January-June (H1) by more than a quarter while the operational profit EBITDA soared by 91.4%, to RON 60.1 million (EUR 12.8 mln).

However, the financial costs of RON 9.3 mln (EUR 2 mln, eight time larger than last year) deteriorated the net profit.

In the first half of this year, Sphera Franchise Group (SFG) reported RON 445.6 mln (EUR 93.8 mln) in sales, up 27.3% compared to the similar period of 2018. Nearly three quarters of this activity was generated by the KFC restaurants in Romania, which posted RON 322.9 mln (EUR 68.0 mln) in revenues, 19.2% more than in the first half of last year.

The net profit under IFRS16 methodology declined by 27.0% to RON 13.7 mln (EUR 2.9 mln), which is still an improvement compared to the 89.8% year-on-year plunge posted by the company in the first quarter when the net profit was only RON 1.27 mln.