Elbisco Holding's gross profits reached euro 279,019 in the 1st half of 2004. The company's net profit before taxes amounted to euro -756,354.92 from euro 903,675.56 during the same period last year. This differentiation is due to the existence of extraordinary gains by the valuation of borrowings in Yen which decreased this year by euro 8.1 m. in comparison to the same period last year.

As far as the consolidated financial results of Elbisco Holding S.A. for the 1st half of 2004 are concerned, the company's sales saw a slight decrease of 1.15% due to the existence of strong competition within an unfortunate market climate. For this reason, the company's gross profit reached 34.1% on sales for the 1st half of 2004 compared to 36.2% in 2003.

Elbisco Holding's EBITDA saw a considerable improvement of 43.03% amounting this year to euro 6,684,823 from euro 4,673,816 of 1H-2003. This increase reflects the successful course of the Elbisco group's restructuring process which mainly aims at reducing general and administrative expenses.

It should finally be noted that, although this year there was a considerable increase of the total operating profit by euro 2,098,397.74, net profits before taxes marked a year-on-year fall due to the group's high foreign exchange gains (approximately euro 6.3 m.) in1H-2003.