AAA Auto ups profit by 200% to EUR 15.8m in Q1-3

Prague, Nov 1 (CTK) - Second-hand car dealer AAA Auto raised profit by 201.6 percent year on year to EUR15.8m (Kc397m) in January-September this year and its total sales grew by 25.3 percent to EUR252.6m (Kc6.3bn), according to unaudited results about which the company informed CTK yesterday.

"Our estimate for net profit for 2012 moves around EUR20m. This means that we will manage to double net profit yr/yr for a third year in a row," said CEO Karolina Topolova.

The number of the sold vehicles increased by 15 percent to 39,000 in Q1-3 2012. The difference between the growth in car sales and the sales was given by a 6 percent yr/yr growth in the average price per car sold.

Gross profit from car sales jumped by 41 percent yr/yr to EUR67.7m, while gross profit margin from the sales grew by 3 percentage points to 26.8 percent. The share of financial services offered by the company increased from 42 to 51 percent.

Sales results for October have also confirmed the continuing growth by AAA Auto. The group raised the number of cars sold by 17 percent in the month.

"Slovakia with a yr/yr growth by 35 percent to 1,385 cars sold was again the main driving force of the sales in October. After the problems with the central register of vehicles in the summer months, the market in the Czech Republic also returned to growth and we raised sales on this market by 7 percent to 3,085 cars," Topolova said.

On the other hand, Russia lagged moderately behind plan.

AAA Auto plans to exceed the level of 50,000 cars sold this year. It has 29 branches in three countries and recently has opened two new branches, one in western Bohemian town of Sokolov and the other in Michalovce, Slovakia.