During the year 2020, despite the health context causing the closure of the Tunisian-Algerian borders and dropping demand on the local market, SOTUVER showed an appreciable resilience. That resilience is already making the main indicators of one of the Bayahi group’s flagship companies rebound.
The Bayahi company seems to be export-oriented, its export turnover (69.6 MTD) being double the one achieved on the local market (35.3 MTD). Revenues amounted to 104 902 769 TND during the fiscal year 2021 against 90 914 649 TND a year earlier (2020).
An export-oriented company
That year, the turnover stood at 90.9 MTD, and the profit at 16.296 MTD. A year later, in 2021, turnover jumped to 107.8 MTD, up 15%, and profit to just over 20 MTD, up 3.747 MTD. By mid-2022, revenues were approaching 80 MTD, and profits were just over 17 MTD.
Over the entire 2022 fiscal year, SOTUVER will have achieved, under the leadership of Hamdane Ben Othmane, a record turnover of 159.9 million dinars against 107.6 million dinars in 2021, thus posting a significant increase of 49%. This commercial performance has affected all markets and sectors.
Regarding the local market, the turnover has seen a significant rise of 40% from 45.9 in 2021 to 64.4 million dinars in 2022. The sales have been boosted by the recovery of the activity of the Cafés-Hotels-Restaurants during the summer period, but also by the strong progression of the turnover of the olive oil sector which for the first time ranked first in terms of sales, translating the importance that SOTUVER grants to this strategic sector.
On the export side, sales have continued to grow to reach 95.6 million dinars against 61.7 million dinars, that is to say an increase of 55% compared to the year 2021. Thanks to this commercial prowess, SOTUVER confirms its status as a predominantly exporting company with 60% of sales abroad (not counting indirect exports which represent 11% of overall turnover).
The Bayahis investing more and more
The Group has already started the construction of a new factory SGI “Sotuver Glass Industries”, a fully exporting unit with a capacity of 300 tons per day, that is to say as much as the current capacity of the bottler. Itis a large investment project of TND 150 million.
This investment would make it possible to take advantage of the growing world demand for glass and to reconcile the demand on the local market. The plant is expected to be operational in the second quarter of 2022. The year 2021 is marked by the release of the participation subscribed by the company “SOTUVER S.A” in 2020 in the capital of the new company “SOTUVER Glass industries” for an amount of 1 525 650 TND. In addition, the implementation of the photovoltaic plant, costing 20M TND, which should reduce the Group’s energy bill, has been delayed.
A worrying debt?
This investment would probably explain the 40.5 MTD of indebtedness, even if it was, as of June 30, down by 4.9 MTD compared to the same period of the year 2021. It is nevertheless true that these 40.5 MTD represented in mid-22 some 50.8% of the total operating income of the period.
Already in 2021, the company took out two new loans. A loan from Attijari Bank for 10 million dinars repayable within 7 years at MMR+1.6%, and another loan from Amen Bank for 10 million dinars repayable within 7 years at MMR+1.75%.
However, its financial statements for the year 2021 showed positive equity of TND 91 293 957, including the profit for the year of TND 20 044 010.
Net financial expenses will be TND 5,920,513 in FY2021 compared to TND 5,140,826 in FY2020, and were TND 3.3 million at mid-year.
A tax adjustment paid
A small downside to this good financial picture, despite the weight of debt, is this comment by the auditors on the 2021 balance sheet: “In 2020, the company SOTUVER was subject to a thorough tax audit covering the years 2015 and 2016. The results of the audit were communicated on December 23, 2020. The administration demanded additional taxes of TND 306 709. On February 8, 2021, the company refuted the results of the in-depth tax audit notice. At the same time, the tax authorities responded to SOTUVER’s appeal on 15 March 2021 by changing the amount claimed to TD 305,173. This amount was paid in full in 2021.
