Strong half-year, positioning the Group for sustainable and diversified growth

Life Sciences investment in increased capacity progressing well

Year of transition into non-COVID related revenues

 

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc (AIM: EKF), the AIM-listed global diagnostics business, announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2022.

 

Despite this being a year of transition, as the business pivots away from a busy COVID period, EKF has successfully maintained good momentum, recording a strong first half in line with management expectations and positioning the business for sustainable, diversified growth over the long term.

 

Financial highlights

• Revenues of £37.5m (H1 2021: £38.6m)

• 74.8% up from pre-pandemic levels (H1 2019: £21.4m)

• Revenue growth, excluding largely COVID-related activities in Contract Manufacturing and Laboratory Testing, of 11.5% in period

• Adjusted EBITDA* of £9.7m (H1 2021: £12.8m)
  • 73.9% up from pre-pandemic levels (H1 2019: £5.6m)
• Gross profit of £17.7m (H1 2021: £18.5m) with GM% maintained at 47% (H1 2021: 48%)
• Profit before tax of £4.1m (H1 2021: £11.4m)
• Net cash generated from operations of £8.4m (H1 2021: £1.1m)
• Cash and cash equivalents of £19.1m (30 June 2021: £20.8m) (31 December 2021: £20.3m)

* Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation adjusted for exceptional items and share-based payments

 

Operational highlights

• Business division revenues

• Point-of-Care: up 9.7% to £13.8m (H1 2021: £12.5m)
• Central Laboratory: stable at £6.3m (H1 2021: £6.3m), returned to growth in July
• Life Sciences: doubled to £2.0m (H1 2021: £1.0m)
• Contract Manufacturing: £8.6m (H1 2021: £17.5m) reflecting expected drop in COVID revenues
• Laboratory Testing: £2.1m (H1 2021: nil, laboratory acquired in H2 2021)
• Other: £4.7m (H1 2021: £1.2m) including £3.5m relating to cash received for US inventory

• Life Sciences: Investment to bring increased fermentation capacity online from 2023 – customer onboarding processes are already underway with audits, validation batches and tech transfer ongoing
• Laboratory Testing: new clinical toxicology testing service launched, further test portfolio launches in Q4 2022 and Q1 2023, and non-invasive prenatal test service with Yourgene Health to launch next month 
• Implementation of reorganisation programme across the business to align resources with the expansion opportunities
• Share Buyback programme completed successfully, 9m shares cancelled, offsetting dilution from shares issued in H2 2021 as consideration for laboratory testing business

 

Mike Salter, Chief Executive Officer of EKF, commented: “Whilst 2022 is a year of transition, positioning EKF for long-term sustainable and diversified growth, the strong first half delivery has been pleasing. This performance shows the strength and robustness of our core established business and provides the Board with confidence that the Group, as a whole, remains on track to deliver an adjusted EBITDA result in line with its expectations for the full year and is well positioned for the years ahead.”

 

A copy of the investor presentation is available here: https://www.ekfdiagnostics.com/documents-reports.html

 

EKF Diagnostics will be hosting a live online presentation open to all investors on Tuesday 20 September at 4.30pm (BST), via the Investor Meet Company platform. Investors can sign up to Investor Meet Company for free and add to meet EKF Diagnostics via:

 

https://www.investormeetcompany.com/ekf-diagnostics-holdings-plc/register-investor

 

 

Download full announcement

 

 

 

For further information please contact:

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc		www.ekfdiagnostics.com
Christopher Mills, Non-executive Chairman		Tel: +44 (0)29 2071 0570
Mike Salter, CEO Marc Davies, CFO
Singer Capital Markets (Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker)			Tel: +44 (0)20 7496 3000
Aubrey Powell / George Tzimas / Tom Salvesen
Investec Bank plc (Joint Broker)		Tel: +44 (0)20 7597 4000
Gary Clarence / Daniel Adams
Walbrook PR Limited	Tel: +44 (0)20 7933 8780 or
Paul McManus / Lianne Cawthorne	Mob: +44 (0)7980 541 893 / +44 (0)7584 391 303