Month: June 2024

Eco Baltia continues to grow turnover this year – up 10% in the first quarter

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The largest environmental resource management and waste recycling group in the Baltics, Eco Baltia JSC (AS), has closed the first quarter of 2024 with a net turnover of EUR 61.9 million, up 10% year-on-year (Q1 2023: EUR 56.3 million). The turnover was mainly driven by a solid and convincing performance in the environmental management sector, focused efforts on efficiency and automation, and business expansion through acquisitions.

The Group’s consolidated profit before tax for the first three months of 2024 was EUR 670.9 thousand, while consolidated EBITDA in the first quarter reached EUR 9.1 million, an increase of 10.4% compared to the same period last year.

Māris Simanovičs, Chairman of the Management Board of Eco Baltia: “This year we continue to increase the pace of development of the company, focusing on productivity, as well as new businesses and markets. Last year, we already achieved historically unprecedented results, thus strengthening our position in the Latvian and international markets. Similarly to last year, in the first months of this year we have continued to evaluate the development of the Group through the acquisition of new businesses. We are also continuing to work on a number of investment projects in Lithuania and Latvia, which will allow us to increase both the amount of waste collected and the amount of waste recycled over the next few years.”

Expanding Eco Baltia’s portfolio of companies and services, an agreement was signed in March this year to acquire 100% of the shares in Eko Osta, a Latvian company that manages environmentally harmful and hazardous waste. The transaction will continue after the merger has been approved by the Competition Council. Also at the beginning of this year, Eco Baltia acquired a 40.4% stake in the Latvian road maintenance company JSC (AS) Daugavpils specializētais autotransporta uzņēmums.

Eco Balta Group’s largest environmental management companies – Eco Baltia vide in Latvia and Ecoservice in Lithuania – continued to develop a number of investment projects in the first quarter of the year. Eco Baltia vide invested EUR 2.3 million in the construction of construction waste sorting and recycling sites in the Baltic Sea region (Rumbula) and Liepāja. Both sites have gradually started operations in early summer. Eco Baltia vide is also continuing work on the establishment of a sorting plant for municipal and separately collected waste in Acone, Pierīga, which started last year with a total investment of €11.7 million and will be able to sort 45 000 tonnes of waste annually. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian environmental management company Ecoservice approved an investment of €18 million in early 2024 to rebuild a waste sorting centre in Vilnius, which was hit by fire last year.

Targeted development was also implemented in the recycling sector, where PET Baltija, a PET bottle recycler, completed a rebranding and name change to ITERUM this summer. During the first quarter, work continued on the new PET bottle recycling plant in Olaine, with a total project investment of more than €35 million. More than €10 million of this was contributed by ITERUM. The building will have a total area of approximately 26,250 m2 and will be one of the largest industrial buildings in Latvia and one of the largest PET recycling plants in Northern Europe. At the same time, ITERUM continues to promote the sale and production of products in cooperation with its Czech subsidiary Tesil Fibres, a leading supplier of fibres to the European market for the automotive, hygiene, textile and furniture segments, by developing the recycled PET raw material chain.

Despite the challenges in the recycling sector in recent years, we have used this period to improve efficiency and automate production processes, which is an integral part of long-term business development in the current market conditions. In the coming years, this will allow us to sort waste more accurately, improve the quality of recycled materials, increase recycling capacity and thus bring more waste back into the circular economy. At the same time, we place a strong emphasis on the well-being of our employees. Therefore, we always set high standards in terms of improving the internal work environment and work safety, developing the skills of employees, as well as creating a family-friendly work environment,” says Mr Simanovičs.

As the Eco Baltia Group’s business model and operations are focused on the circular economy, the development and implementation of a consolidated ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) strategy is also being pursued in the Group’s companies. In line with the Group’s strategic objectives, the main focus in 2024 will be on improving working conditions and safety, the well-being of employees and the promotion of ESG and sustainability.

Eco Baltia Group attains historic high turnover of EUR 218.5 million

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The largest environmental resource management and recycling group in the Baltics, Eco Baltia AS, has approved its audited corporate and consolidated financial statements for 2023. According to the statements, the group’s consolidated turnover last year was the highest ever at EUR 218.4 million, up 4% year-on-year, while EBITDA was EUR 28.4 million, up 11.8% year-on-year.

The increase was mainly driven by the solid and convincing results in the environmental management sector, the acquisition of new businesses and expansion in the international market, as well as the process automation and streamlining measures implemented.

Compared to the unaudited financial statements for the first 12 months of last year, which were published on 28 March this year, the audited consolidated financial statements include changes in certain line items. Following the audit, the Group’s consolidated turnover decreased by EUR 0.1 million and EBITDA increased by EUR 0.8 million. The changes also affected the net profit of Eco Baltia, which according to the audited consolidated financial statements amounted to EUR 1.5 million (unaudited: EUR 1.7 million). The changes mainly relate to the allocation of goodwill arising on acquisitions to the estimates of assets and liabilities acquired, the restatement of the opening balances of newly acquired corporate financial instruments and deferred corporate income tax in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards.

As Māris Simanovičs, Chairman of the Board of Eco Baltia AS, explains: “Despite last year representing a recovery period for the global market following economic challenges, we have used it to the benefit of Eco Baltia’s growth. We have evaluated new directions for the development of the Group’s companies in the international market, which was achieved through several new acquisitions in both the environmental management and recycling sectors. At the same time, despite the difficult situation in the international recycling market, we have taken important steps in process automation, which will help increase the Group’s recycling capacity in the long term. In addition to targeted investments in business development, last year we continued our work to develop and implement a consolidated ESG (environmental, social and governance) strategy across the Group’s businesses. At the same time, one of the most important pillars of our development is the improvement of the working environment, safety and employee welfare, which we will continue to work on this year.”

In line with the company’s strategic objectives for 2024, one of Eco Baltia’s priorities will be to improve working conditions and safety, implement various support measures for employees and promote sustainability. In 2024, it is also planned to continue investing in waste recycling and environmental management, thus contributing to the continued growth, efficiency and competitiveness of the Group’s companies both domestically and internationally.

20.06.2024.

Decisions of the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders of Eco Baltia

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On 18 June this year, the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of the largest environmental resource management and recycling group in the Baltics, Eco Baltia AS, was held.

Resolutions of the Ordinary General Meeting:

1.Approval of the Company’s financial statement and consolidated financial statement of year 2023.

• to approve the audited annual financial statements for the year 2023 of the Company with the loss of EUR 328 240,12.
• to approve the audited consolidated financial statements for the year 2023 of the Company with the profit EUR 1 538 113.
• to cover reporting year loss from previous years accumulated profit.

2. Payment of dividends and establishment of a reserve.

• To pay dividends in amount of 1,000,000 EUR from retained earnings of previous years subject to Luminor Bank AS consent.
• To establish a reserve in amount of 10,000,000 EUR in AS Eco Baltia equity using previously retained earnings for buy-back of shares of the Company and cancelling them after acquisition according to the Commercial Law of Latvia.

3. Approval of the Auditor of the Company for year 2024.

• To approve Deloitte Audits Latvia SIA, Deloitte Lietuva UAB, Deloitte Audit s.r.o. and Deloitte Assurance sp.z. o.o. as auditor of AS “Eco Baltia” and its subsidiaries (in Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Poland) annual reports for year 2024 with a total expected budget EUR 347 534, expected budget for AS “Eco Baltia” annual report and consolidated reports EUR 57 230.
• To approve the reimbursement of occurred additional costs to auditor for the preparation of AS “Eco Baltia” 2023 annual report in amount of EUR 4 210.

About Eco Baltia
Eco Baltia group is the largest environmental and waste management group in the Baltics, providing the full-cycle waste management solutions from waste collection and sorting to secondary raw material logistics, wholesale and raw material processing as well as PET and PE/PP plastics recycling.
Eco Baltia closed 2023 with a consolidated turnover of EUR 218.4 million, an increase of 4% compared to 2022. Eco Baltia’s total combined sales revenue (pro-forma) in 2023 amounted to EUR 242.5 million.
The Group has more than 2.500 employees in Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic. Its leading companies are PET Baltija, Eco Baltia vide, Latvijas Zaļais punkts, Nordic Plast, JUMIS, Sigulda, TESIL Fibres, TESIL Fibres, UAB Ecoservice, based in Lithuania, and, from November 2023, Metal Plast, based in Poland.