Asbis IT hopes to meet 2024 guidance

"As far as our forecast for 2024 is concerned, we believe that we can still achieve the announced level of results. The most important month that will show whether this is feasible will be November - then we will be able to assess whether we can achieve the announced results or whether we will have to revise the forecast," Tziamalis said.

"We are seeing a significant increase in activity in our business which has a significant impact on our results and profitability. In addition, we have had discussions with the directors, the heads of our companies in each country and we have heard from them that the execution of the forecasts is feasible," he added.

In May, Asbis said that it forecasts to achieve sales revenues of between USD 3.1 billion and USD 3.4 billion and net profit after tax of USD 60-64 million in 2024.

"At the moment, we are not planning to enter any new markets (...). We will work on expanding in the markets where we are already present, and we want to put a special emphasis on South Africa," Asbis' deputy CEO said.

"We are developing a good partnership with Apple. We have received approval from them to sell their products in the US," he added.

As an outlook and financial target for 2025, the group indicated: lower operating costs, a higher gross profit margin, lower finance costs and the continuation of high dividend payments.

The deputy CEO Tziamalis pointed out at the conference that the group optimised its workforce in the third quarter. There had been a reduction in the number of employees in divisions that were underperforming. He reported that the group would continue this process in the fourth quarter and in 2025 if the actions carried out proved insufficient.

Asbis reported at the conference that Poland remains the most dynamic, growing country, generating growth in both third quarter of 2024 (57.1 percent) and the nine months of 2024 (29.4 percent) compared to the respective prior year periods. The best-selling product categories in Poland were processors, SSDs and HDDs.

"We are counting on Poland in the fourth quarter, we are counting on it to make a significant contribution to revenue. Poland is a market that continues to grow, so we are strengthening our team there," Costas Tziamalis said.

The Asbis group generated sales revenues of nearly USD 2.1 billion in the three quarters of 2024, with group net profit of USD 29.6 million. In the third quarter alone, Asbis posted USD 722.5 million in revenue and USD 9.5 million in net profit.

"We ended the third quarter of 2024, which proved to be as challenging as the previous quarter. The key issues we faced during the period were the negative impact of the new market realities in Kazakhstan, the continuation of the war in Ukraine and rising tensions in the Middle East," said the group's CEO Serhei Kostevitch, quoted in the press release following the publication of Asbis' financial results.

"Asbis' main objective for the rest of 2024 remains unchanged - to maintain and even strengthen its market share in the main markets of the CEE and CIS regions. We intend to intensify activities related to the development of our own brands and the acquisition of customers from new suppliers in new markets," he added.

On Wednesday, the company reported that Asbis' management board had decided to pay shareholders an advance on the expected dividend from 2024 profit of USD 11.1 million. The advance will amount to USD 0.2 per share.

"We want to continue our policy of paying high dividends, always combined with strong cash flow," CEO

Kostevitch said.

alk/ ao/ han/