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EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc (AIM: EKF), the AIM-listed global diagnostics business, announces its final results for the year ended 31 December 2021. Comparative data is provided for the year ended 31 December 2020, unless otherwise indicated.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue up 25% to £81.8m (2020: £65.3m)

• Core¹ business revenues up 14% to £42.1m (2020: £37.1m)

• Gross profit up 5% to £39.4m (2020: £37.4m)
• Adjusted EBITDA² up 4% to £26.5m (2020: £25.5m), reflecting the changes in the mix of Contract Manufacturing related products as well as increased costs in the supply chain.
• Profit before tax of £21.4m (2020: £15.4m), including effect of share-based payments
• Basic earnings per share of 3.47p (2020: 2.45p)
• Cash generated by operating activities of £10.2m (2020: £13.8m)
• Cash at 31 December 2021 of £20.3m (2020: £21.9m), net cash after borrowings of £19.6m (2020: £21.4m)
• Value of investments in marketable securities at year end of £7.6m (2020: £6.5m)
• Cash dividend of £5.1m paid to shareholders, equivalent to 1.1p per ordinary share (2020: 1.0p per share)

Operational Highlights

• Focus on returning core business to pre-pandemic 2019 levels and positioned for future sustainable growth outside of short-term contract manufacturing
• New reporting of business division revenues:
  • Point-of-Care up 18% to £27.0m
  • Central Laboratory up 7% to £13.1m
  • Life Sciences up 3% to £2.0m
  • Contract Manufacturing up 38% to £36.3m, driven by COVID sample collection kits manufacture
  • Laboratory Testing Services ADL Health contributed £1.0m following acquisition in September 2021

• Significant investment in South Bend, Indiana, facility to expand EKF Life Sciences' fermentation capabilities
• $10m acquisition of ADL Health, an earnings enhancing and cash generative CLIA certified testing laboratory

¹ Core business includes Point of Care, Central Laboratory and Life Sciences
² Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, share-based payments and exceptional items, as laid out in the income statement

Christopher Mills, Non-Executive Chairman of EKF, commented:

“2021 was a year that delivered record revenue and adjusted EBITDA performance. Our key focus remains on implementing our strategy to position our core business for sustainable future growth, utilising cash generated from short-term contract manufacturing activities. At the end of 2019, and pre-pandemic, we had a core business that generated revenues of £43.3m and an adjusted EBITDA of £12m. These results show that in 2021 our core business revenues were broadly in-line with these levels and we have already implemented our investment plans to support growth in our core business in 2022.

“Current trading is strong and we expect to deliver a solid first quarter performance in line with that of 2021. However, we are adopting a pragmatic view that we expect there will be a significant reduction in pandemic-related contract manufacturing activity for the remainder of the year and guiding analysts accordingly. The new management team is keenly focused on delivering the growth plan through to 2024 which assumes no benefit from further COVID-related manufacturing, but instead is targeting sustainable revenue growth in our expanded core operations.”

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About EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc

EKF is a leading global diagnostics business with custom manufacturing facilities across sites in the US, UK and Europe for a variety of life science products. EKF is focussed on the following areas:

In May 2021, EKF announced its strategy for delivering growth to 2024 and beyond, and continuing to deliver shareholder value. The strategy for growth can be summarised as:

EKF will also continue to generate enhanced shareholder value through: