The company’s profit declined 9.8 percent in H1, to RON 15 mln (€3.5 mln), due to higher financial expenses. Antibiotice’s strategy focused on securing cash inflows on a market facing difficulties with receivable collection.

“In H1, the main goal was to limit risks generated by the degrading financial flows on the Romanian and international markets. The drop in the degree of market absorption in the second quarter led us to try to limit over-stocking pharmacies and to take the products in pharmacies to the targeted public,” the company’s General Manager, Ioan Nani, told Business Standard. Also, the producer has limited deliveries to distributors facing financial problems.

“In this context, exporting is a sort of an anti-crisis measure, although the market is rather complicated abroad as well. For exports, we manage to receive [the cash] within 60-90 days, which is very good, and are able to balance financial flows. On the local market, we cannot settle invoices in less than 230 days,” Nani added.

The company raised its exports of finished products, especially in Russia, Asia, and Africa, with the United States as its next target.