Significant decrease of bottom line loss for the Group sustained pre-tax profitability for the parent company during the first half of 2007.
In the first half of 2007 the Group and the parent company posted increased turnover by 5,3% and 3,4% respectively compared to the first half of 2006.
The Group's EBITDA earnings stood at 4 million euros vs. 7,3 million euros for the same period last year, while the parent company posted EBITDA earnings of 0,4 million euros vs. 2,4 million euros in 2006.
The operating earnings of the first half of 2006 included extraordinary earnings of approximately 2,6 million for the Group and 2 million for the parent company stemming from extraordinary profits of previous years.
The profit from securities and investments for the Group reached 1 million euros compared to 9.6 million loss in 2006 and for the parent company stood at 8,2 million euros vs. 6,6 million euros in 2006.
Finally, the Group showed a significant decrease of bottom line loss from 8,2 million euros in first half of 2006 to 1,3 million euros in the same period this year, whle the current company maintained its pre-tax profitability to 7,4 million euros from 7,6 million euros in 2006.
The earnings of the first half of 2007 reflect the continued systematic effort of the Management to increase the Group's market share in the mass media market, to control effectively the operating cost and to streamline the investment portfolio of the company. To this end in July 2007 the company sold its investment in PaperPack - I. Tsoukaridis S.A. Also, following the recent acquisition of the remaining minority shares of ELLINIKA GRAMMATA S.A. the Management of the Group pursues to improve gradually the financial condition of the company and to redesign its strategy in order to succeed in penetrating faster into the book market.