Monbat's core activity is the production and maintenance of lead-acid and starter batteries. Its main factory is situated in Montana (a city in northern Bulgaria).

The company's range of products includes starter batteries, stationery batteries, photovoltaic systems batteries, locomotive batteries and batteries with special military application (designed to meet both Russian army and NATO standards).

History

The first company factory was established in 1959. Six years later, as a unit of DSO Metalhim-Sopot, Monbat started production of batteries for military application. In 1998 the factory, which was then called Akumicar, was privatized. Main shareholder was Prista Oil.

Main Shareholders

Prista Oil controls 68.3% of the capital. Monbat Trading has 7.06%. Together both companies hold 75.36% and the rest of the shares are traded on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange.

Group

Monbat is a part of the structure of Prsita Oil B. V., registered in Holland. Monbat itself has three subsidiaries – the Serbian Monbat Oil DOO, Dobrich-based Start Jsc and the Romanian SC Monbat Recycling SRL.

Markets

The company exports most of its products. The main markets are the EU countries. Other destinations are Russia, Ukraine, The countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Monbat's market share in Bulgaria is 55% and its distribution network covers 20 cities.

According to the 2008 – 2009 investment strategy, the company aims at achieving a production capacity of 3.1 mln batteries per year by mid-2009, compared with 2.1 mln batteries in 2006.

The production capacity of telecommunications and stationery batteries is set to reach 200,000 units by the end of this year.

Competition

We can divide Monbat's competitors in two groups - regional and international. The main rivals in the region are the Turkish MUTLU (4 mln battreis a year), INCI (2 mln units), and IGIT (2 mln), as well as the Serbian Black Horse (1 mln), the Slovenian TAB (1.5 mln batteries) and the Romanian ROMBAT (2 mln ).

On a global scale the biggest rivals are the American Alcad Stanby Batteries, MVR International Inc., BatteryCorp Inc., CSB Battery Technologies Inc., the Canadian Avestor, German BAE Natterien Gmbh, East Penn Manufacturing Co, GS Battery Inc etc.

Results
Monbat's consolidated profit rose 100% y/y in 2007 to 16.89 mln leva (8.63 mln euros). Net sales amounted to 141.23 mln leva (72.2 mln euros), against 85.31 mln (43.6 mln euros) in 2006. This hike is mainly attributed to rising product sales, which came to 133.63 mln leva (68.32 mln euros), versus 82.16 mln leva (42 mln euros) in the preceding year.

Costs on economic elements last year came to 120.93 mln leva (61.8 mln euros) which is 64% up y/y. Costs on materials soared from 50.11 mln leva to 104.86 mln leva (53.6 mln euros). 78% of this sum was spent on lead, lead allies and polypropylene, which prove to be the most expensive materials.

Monbat's development between 2003 and 2007 is presented in the following chart.

Mln BGN 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 1 Jan'08 Profit 16,89 8,43 3,44 4,29 2,27 3,89 Sales Revenue 141,23 85,31 47,84 35,14 21,75 19,38 Total revenue 141,55 85,74 48,14 36,09 25,54
Total Costs 122,6 75,86 44,05 30,89 22,65
Assets 124,18 85,82 55,82 41,43 25,58
Liabilities 37,1 11,76



Equity Capital 86,76 73,81



Prognoses (mln BGN) 2008 2009 Change % Profit 31,5 46 46,03 EBITDA 39,76 56,53 42,16 Sales Revenue 131,99 223,06 69

Ratio *
P/E 29,32 Forward P/E 16,06 P/S 3,54 P/B 5,85 RoE% 19,94 RoA% 13,57 Debt – Equity Ratio 0,43 COL 4,73 Assets Turnover 1,14 Profit per share 0,87 Profit margin % 11