Mint of Poland’s stable results in H1 2022
The Mint of Poland Group has published its financial results for the first two quarters of this year. In the reporting period, the consolidated sales revenues reached PLN 757.7 million while the consolidated net profit stood at PLN 36.6 million. Amid the dynamically changing market environment, the Company’s financial liquidity has remained stable.
In the reporting period, the Mint of Poland Group generated lower financial results compared to the first half of the previous year. This is due to the base effect of the final sale of 120 apartments in the “Mennica Residence” project in H1 2021, whereas the preliminary sale of apartments in the “Bulwary Praskie” project were not recognized in the financial statements for H1 2022, as these will only be booked upon the execution of final sales agreements in the form of notarial deeds.
At the same time, the very strong financial results for 2021 allowed the Mint of Poland to continue its dividend policy. In FY 2021, the earnings per share (EPS) were PLN 0.70. The dividend was paid on 21 June 2022.
Mint Products
In H1 2022, the Group’s core business segment generated sales revenue of PLN 654.5 million. The Segment’s result was PLN 44.9 million, while the EBITDA reached PLN 47.6 million. The year-on-year comparison of the financial results reveals very strong growth of business in the Mint Products segment accompanied by growing investment in working capital, mainly gold. Throughout the reporting period, very high interest in gold was observed in every distribution channel. Consequently, in the first half of the year the Mint of Poland posted record high results both in terms of the number of transactions handled and the sales revenue generated. In total, the Mint’s Customers bought 1.8 tonnes of gold in the form of bars and bullion coins.
– Despite the challenging market conditions, we have maintained continuity of supply to our Customers. This is one of our key competitive advantages. This is confirmed, for instance, by the sales results of our investment products through our online platform, as Customers choosing this sales channel are looking for the widest range of products available for immediate delivery, which we can offer to them – says Katarzyna Budnicka – Simultaneously, we continue to develop traditional distribution channels for our investment products. In the first half of the year, three new sales offices in Katowice, Lublin and Bialystok, as well as a new company shop in Wroclaw were opened.
In the product category of circulation coins, the most important achievements in the reporting period were the three tender awards to the Mint of Poland announced by the Bank of Guatemala, the Bank of the Dominican Republic and the Bank of Colombia. Under these three contracts, general circulation coins will be produced, the delivery of which will be partly completed at the end of this year. All three contracts are scheduled for completion in the second half of 2023. At the same time, the Mint has submitted a total of 15 other bids in newly-announced tenders. The award decisions in two of them, announced by the Treasury Department in Thailand, are expected at the end of this August. In the product category of collector coins, on the other hand, the Company entered 10 tenders. Meanwhile, several large orders, including one for the production of 1,000 gold bars for the Bank of Estonia, were acquired.
Electronic payments
In Q1-Q2 2022, the sales revenues in the Electronic Payments segment reached PLN 97.4 million, while the Segment’s result and EBITDA were PLN 0.4 million and PLN 5.5 million, respectively. In the second quarter of this year, the Segment’s revenue was up by PLN 8.6 million on the same period a year earlier (PLN 50.1 million vs. PLN 41.5 million).
– In the reporting period, the nominal gross value of sales processed by the Mint’s systems was up nearly 30 per cent on the same period a year earlier – reports Katarzyna Budnicka – Apart from maintenance of our existing projects, we focused our attention on ensuring that maintenance processes were taken over by internal organisational units. At the same time, we were also developing our flagship product – the Open Payment System (OPS). Another city where our proprietary system will be implemented later this year will be Poznan.
The Mint of Poland continues to expand the functionalities offered to public transport user by the Company’s OPS validators. Since May, passengers in Wroclaw, Bydgoszcz, Gdansk and Lodz have been able to pay for their ticket using with ‘contactless BLIK’. The innovative payment option is available both in mobile and stationary ticket vending machines. Soon, OPS validators will offer ‘contactless BLIK’ as payment method also in Wloclawek and Jaworzno. In Warsaw, passengers can now use the new contactless payment method for public transport tickets both in mobile and stationary machines.
Real Estate Development
The Real Estate Development segment’s H1 2022 revenue amounted to PLN 5.8 million. In the reporting period, the Segment posted a result of PLN -14.3 million and an EBITDA (including investments valued using the equity method) of PLN -13 million. Lower revenues and results year-on-year are mainly due to the final sale of apartments in Stages I and II of the “Mennica Residence” project which was booked in the first half of 2021 while the preliminary sale agreements of apartments in the next stage of the “Bulwary Praskie” project signed this year were not recognised in the H1 2022 financial statements.
– At the end of the reporting period, 215 apartments in the “Bulwary Praskie” project were preliminarily sold under either development agreements or preliminary sales agreements. This represents 66 per cent of all apartments in the project’s four buildings currently under construction. In the first six months of this year alone, despite rising interest rates and a downturn in the market, we sold 128 apartments. This is nearly 40 per cent of the total number of flats in the said four buildings – informs Katarzyna Budnicka.
At the end of the first quarter of 2022, the Mint of Poland finalised the sale of all apartments in the “Bulwary Praskie” project (Building S1) in the form of notarial deeds. In total, 142 apartments were sold in this building.