TRACE GROUP WITH 68% REVENUE INCREASE

Chimimport (CHIM) published 2024 cons results. Revenues from non-financial enterprises increased by 20% to BGN 498.8mln driven by the growth in plane fares and the sales of services. Net insurance revenues dropped 27.6% to BGN 38mln. On the contrary, banking was very successful and net interest revenues increased 19% to BGN 256mln. As a result, Net profit increased over 51% to BGN 124mln.

Sin Cars Industry (SIN) published results for 2024, where revenues increased 35% to BGN 7.6mln as a result of the more orders, which they got through the year. During 2024 contracts for the delivery of 16 cars from the L CITY Koffer model were signed with clients from Bulgaria, Netherlands, Germany and Serbia. The net loss decreased slightly from BGN 0.31mln to BGN 0.24mln. The company is still aiming at implementing relevant certifications and streamline production processes where the goal is to reach a production capacity of 500 cars per year.

Smart Organic (SO) published 2024 results, where sales increased over 14% to BGN 92.3mln. It is clear that the rise came from B2B sales, i.e. through major resellers (a strategy similar to that of Shelly Group). Those sales increased 15.4% to BGN 87mln. Direct sales dropped 10% to BGN 4.1mln and Net Profit increased 18.4% to BGN 14.2mln. The domestic sales comprise 33% and EU – 60% and in 2024 the company managed to sign a distribution agreement with Rossman, a pharmacy chain in Germany with over 2,200 locations. Other B2B clients include Billa,  Denn’s,  Aldi,  Hofer,  Kaufland,  dm and Rewe.

ü  The business confidence indicator rose to 19.3 in April. The improvement was largely driven by more optimistic assessments from industrial entrepreneurs regarding the present business situation (29.1 vs 20.3 in March) and the outlook for the next six months (10.2 vs 9).

ü  Producer prices climbed by 17.4% YoY in March. This marked the highest producer inflation since December 2022, as prices continued to increase for all sectors, including mining and quarrying (32.7% vs 30.9% in February), electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply (52.9% vs 44.3%) and manufacturing (11.3% vs 12.1%), particularly in the manufacture of basic metals, food products, and beverages.

ü  The number of tourist arrivals rose by 1.5% YoY to 767.7 thousand in March 2025. Holiday and recreation trips increased by 4.5%, visits for other purposes rose by 1.1%, while those for professional purposes declined by 4.7%.