Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining. My name is Laura Corios, and I am the Head of Communication in Tallinnovation. I welcome you all to today's Tallinnavese's webinar. This webinar will be hosted by the members of the management board, Chief Financial Officer, Kristi Olegar and Chief Operations Officer, Aleksander Dimofeyev.
Firstly, Aleksander and Kristi will introduce the highlights of the Q1 and give an overview about COVID-nineteen's impact on Dalinarveci. Then they will speak about Dalinarveci's operational and financial results of the Q1 of the year. After that, Aleksandar will tell will give an overview about the investments in wastewater treatment. Right after the presentation, you will have an opportunity to ask questions. It is also possible to type in your question during the presentation, but these will be answered in the end part of the webinar.
To submit your questions, please use the question box on the right side of the screen. Now I will give it over to Aleksander and Kristi. Here you go.
Thank you, Laura. Good morning, everyone, from my side as well. As you know, there has been a change in the ownership of the company. Starting from 31st March 2021, HDV's shareholders with a direct holding over 5% are the city of Tallinn and Utiritas. Also, several members of our supervisory council have been replaced.
The 1st council meeting with the new members was held yesterday. We are enthusiastic about our future cooperation with the city and utilities, and we will keep all our shareholders well informed whenever necessary. A little bit about COVID-nineteen and its impact on the business. The Q1 of 2021 was affected by the spread of coronavirus. In the Q1, we maintained the changes in our working arrangements made in autumn.
The arrangements were to ensure the continued safety of our staff and uninterrupted high quality service to our customers. Although we have had some COVID-nineteen cases among our employees, overall, changes in the work organization have proved the right and kept away the spread of the virus. We are still being cautious, and we'll be keeping the measures at least until the end of May. All the plant investments have been made, and deliveries such as chemicals are on schedule. I give over at the moment to Kristi.
Thank you, Alexander. With the following, I would like to give you the overview of the financial performance of Radi Navesi in the Q1 of this year. After the financial highlights of the Q1, I will give more details about sales and costs. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has affected Terrenavirus results being reason for lower revenues and profit compared to the Q1 of the last year. It is difficult to predict the objective scale of the emerging outbreaks and the consequent economic impact to the company's revenue and financial results.
The latest economic forecast from Bank of Estonia expects the recovery of the Estonian economy to be delayed until the second half of the year, but the recovery shall be faster. So the expected growth of GDP is expected to be 2.7% in this year and 5% in 2020 22. So aligned with Estonia's macroeconomic forecast, we expect in short term lower water services consumption also in next month compared to the pre pandemic time, specifically in commercial customers segment.
I will give an update on our operational performance during the Q1, which is also covered in a TAC released on last Wednesday. We are pleased to see consistently high performance in the quality of our services. Although some results are not as perfect as in 2020 due to very low temperatures of air in the beginning of the year. A little bit about water quality. We monitor our water quality at all times.
And in the Q1 of 2021, we took almost 900 water samples from the network. All our samples met a strict water quality standards and were 100% compliant with all requirements. This has been ensured by the efficient management of water treatment process, proactive network maintenance and low raw water temperature being a contributing factor. If we speak about the wastewater treatment, then in addition to monitoring drinking water, we also consistently monitor the concentration of pollutants in the incoming wastewater and final treated effluent of wastewater treatment plant, which has a direct impact on the marine environment. During the 1st 3 months, the effluent continued to be fully compliant all regulations and standards.
Customers, really important for us. Our goal is to deliver high quality service to our customers and users. And in the Q1, our customer satisfaction was much higher, 4.3, than during the same period last year. This shows that customers are more and more satisfied with the customer service we provide to them. In the Q1, we also saw a decrease in the number of written inquiries and repeated requests and customers' complaints.
This positive trend shows a stable improvement in the quality of our services. The level of leakages in our network was 15 point 46% in the 1st 3 months of the year, impacted by cold weather and reduced consumption because of the coronavirus. We always try to disturb our customers as little as possible. Unfortunately, the average water distribution time is slightly higher than in the same period last year. To minimize the effect of water interaction to our customers, we continue the additional valve installation project also in 2021.
In terms of enhancing the reliability of water supply service to our customers, we rehabilitate our network in Poiska, Rosy Pranse streets and Kallaka Road. During Q1 of 2021, we construct a total of 1400 meters of water pipes and approximately 700 meters of sewers. Let's move on to the bigger projects. In the Q1 of the year, our main focus was on investments in waste towards treatment. In both of these projects, our investment plan concludes €9,600,000 in total, including €1,100,000 for the new pump at the main pumping station of Paliasara and €8,500,000 in total in the reconstruction of the mechanical treatment stage.
Company upgraded the city's main pumping station, receiving all the wastewater collected from Tallinn. We installed a new pump called Morris, which reduces the operational risk of a plant and provides up to 10% additional capacity for incoming wastewater volumes. Morris will also enhance resilience of a wastewater treatment process at times of heavy rainfall and will further increase the reliability of supply for tailors. The largest project over past decade is the reconstruction of the mechanical treatment process stage in waste water treatment plant. Everything progressed according to the plan.
In the Q1, we made preparations for taking the new grid crops into the operation. Completion of the project will further enhance the quality and resilience of the waste water treatment process in Tallinn. The project will be continued also throughout 2021. I will give over now to Kristi, who will continue with the finance results. Thank you.
Thank you, Alexander. As you can see, compared to the Q1 in 2020, the total sales revenues decreased by 10.6 percent amounting to €11,800,000 The sales of water services decreased by 9.5 percent or €1,100,000 and the construction services by 25.7 percent or €300,000 The gross profit for the Q1 in 2021 was €5,200,000 which was lower by 14.5 percent or €900,000 compared to the same period in last year. The gross profit was fully impacted by lower water services revenues. In the Q1 this year, the operating profit was €4,700,000 or €1,000,000 lower than in the same period in 2020, being mainly impacted by lower revenues. Operating profit in Q1 in 2021 was also affected by reduction in the provision formed for the possible third party claims in Q1.
In 2021, the amount was €1,200,000 which is comparable to the amount in the Q1 of last year. Compared to the Q1 in 2020, the net profit of the company was €1,000,000 lower being mainly affected by changes in operating profit. We shall move to the next slides for further comments of the changes in revenues and costs in detail. Total sales revenues for the Q1 of 2021 decreased by 10.6%, as said previously. Total revenues from water services were 9.5 percent or €1,100,000 lower than in the Q1 of 2020, amounting to €10,800,000 The decrease in water services revenues was caused by the changes in the consumption and the private customers revenues and main service area increased compared to the same period in 2020 by 1.7% to €5,100,000 driven mainly by higher consumption in apartment blocks worth €700,000 The commercial customers revenue in main service area decreased compared to the same period in 2020 by 21.5 percent to €3,300,000 related to decrease in the commercial consumption.
Outside services area revenues decreased by 1.6% amounting to €1,200,000 and the change was driven by lower stormwater disposal from different outside areas balanced by partly higher consumption of water supply services. Stormwater volumes from the main service area were lower by 26.5 percent amounting to €900,000 in the Q1 of this year. The revenues from Construction Services showed a decrease of 20 5.7 percent or €300,000 compared to the Q1 of last year and amounted to €800,000 The decrease was mainly related to lower pipe construction services revenues being impacted by snowy winter that made the pipe construction challenging during the first 2 months of this year. We shall now move on to the costs. The total cost of goods sold decreased by 7.3 percent or €520,000 in the Q1 of 2021 amounting to €6,600,000 Direct main production costs in total decreased by 7% or €142,000 mostly due to the lower electricity costs and pollution tax, while chemicals cost has increased.
Construction services cost decreased by 28.7 percent to €600,000 and were related to lower construction services revenues mentioned previously. Other cost of goods sold decreased by 19.2 percent to €900,000 and were related to timing of asset maintenance costs. Administrative and marketing costs increased by 18.5 percent or EUR 261,000 amounting to EUR 1,700,000 and it was related to increased purchase of administrative and consulting services. Other net income and expenses amounted to net income of €1,200,000 compared to net income of €1,000,000 in last year, and it was caused by higher revenues from connection fee fees and lower expense of estimated credit losses. The net income was mostly impacted by €1,200,000 decrease in provision for third party claims in the Q1 of this year, which is equal to decrease of provision in last year same period.
The provision takes into account difference in between the tariffs in services agreements. In 2010, The tariffs based on the company's estimation was the reservation to the possible fluctuation regarding past 21 months being the approximate remaining uninspired term of potential claims. Still, company does not consider itself liable to customers for any claims related to tariffs, which were applied until the new tariffs were approved by CA. This takes us now to the cash flows. The company's cash balance stood at €10,100,000 at the end of March and was forming 18.2 percent of the total assets.
Compared to the end of last quarter, the cash balance has increased by €2,600,000 At the biggest contribution to the cash flows comes net first quarter total operating cash flow amounted to €5,200,000 The company's collection of receivables continues to be high being on average 99.2 percent level. And the net cash flows from investing activities during the 3 months of this year resulted a cash outflow of €2,400,000 which is €300,000 less than in the same period last year. Investments into fixed assets have been €2,900,000 and the compensations received for the construction of pipes and connection points were €500,000 The company's financing cash outflow during the 3 months of 2021 were €200,000 compared to the last year same period. Cash outflows have decreased by €100,000 mainly related to lower interest and lease payments. As we usually do in April, we also have a positive news for investors this time related to dividend proposal, namely company's council has made a resolution to propose a dividend €0.65 per share.
The proposal is subject to the shareholders meeting resolution in the beginning of the June. Thank you. And now I'm giving words back to Laura.
Thank you for the presentation, Christian, Alexander. Now we will proceed with the questions and we will give you some time to submit your question. You can type it into the question box And please feel free to type in any questions you might have. We now have some minutes for this. We have received one question from Sander Taner.
And it is what is the amount of total CapEx planned for 2021? And Alexander, please.
Thank you very much for the question. So I'm glad to say that Italian Water invests into the assets year on year, and the investments planned for 2021 are on the same level as last year. During this year, we plan to rehabilitate a lot of networks in the city of Tallinn, and also we have some good projects at the wastewater treatment plant to improve the effluent quality of the wastewater treatment plant. Thank you.
And we will give you one more minute to type in your question. Thank you for the questions. And Sander Danil asks, does the new council plan to review the dividend policy of the company for coming years?
Thank you for the question. We have to say that this has not been discussed yet. If there is any change to be made, then we will inform all the investors accordingly.
And another question, are you planning to disclose ERP and BAK numbers in the future?
Thank you once again. The answer here is that we currently do not plan to disclose RAB and NWAC numbers separately.
And one more question about construction. Construction activities were somewhat complicated by weather conditions in the Q1. Do you see already volumes picking up in the second quarter?
Thank you for the question. Definitely, the construction market is very active at the moment, and Talend Water and our subsidiary participating in the tenders, and we try to get as much work as possible to fulfill all expectations that are raised by our shareholders. Thank you.
And also, Sven Hain asks what kind of pipe are in the water net?
In water network, we use different materials. So if we speak about the plastic pipes, then this is PE or PEP pipes. And if we speak about the bigger diameter pipes, then we use cast iron pipes. Thank you.
And that's it with the questions right now. It seems like we don't have any more of this. So thank you all who have sent in their questions. A recording of the presentation will be available in the Nasdaq Baltic YouTube channel webinar playlist shortly. Presentation materials and reports can be found on Dalinevesis webpage.
Kristi and Alexander, thank you for the overview and thank you all for joining. Have a good day.