AutoWallis-Q1/22 performance: As strong as it gets

•  The AutoWallis Group closed the first quarter with growth far above the market average and outstanding efficiency gains. Net profit more than quintupled to HUF 1.9 billion and EBITDA more than doubled to HUF 3.1 billion, with sales up 18 percent YoY. Although the operational efficiency of both main segments (wholesale and retail) of the AutoWallis Group improved significantly and the growth was exclusively organic, the main driver of sales and earnings growth was the expansion of the wholesale business.
• The AutoWallis Group's sales increased by 18 percent YoY to HUF 57.7 bln, with the number of cars sold increasing by 11 percent to 7,410. The number of cars sold in the Wholesale business rose by 15.6 percent to 5,266 units, mainly thanks to the SsangYong and Isuzu brands. In the Retail business, 1,659 new and 485 used vehicles were sold, corresponding to a decrease of 1.1% in the former and an increase of 11.8% in the latter compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, the decline in the EU new car markets was 12.4 percent, and the Hungarian passenger car market also fell by 11 percent YoY both due to chip shortages and other component supply problems.

The increase in consolidated sales revenue was exclusively organic (as all previous M&A transactions were closed in 2021), and nearly half of the AutoWallis Group's revenue came from foreign markets.. Of the two businesses, the Wholesale segment performed better (mainly because of the SsangYong and Isuzu brands), with sales in this segment growing 32 percent, while the Retail segment’s sales grew only slightly primarily due to the chip shortage causing supply problems in new cars. The Group's retail portfolio has been expanded with a new brand in March 2022 - after the wholesale, AutoWallis entered the domestic retail market of SsangYong and, together with a major European car trading partner, won the exclusive Hungarian import rights of Renault, Dacia and Alpine. The acquisition of the Slovenian Avto Aktiv was also completed in the first quarter.