LiDCO was founded 20 years ago and its technology is designed to monitor the amount of blood flowing around the body to ensure that vital organs are adequately oxygenated during surgery. And these half-year figures carried news of increasing links with important America-based distributors.
The results include £294,000 of third-party UK turnover – that's related to the sale of Texas-based Argon Medical products in the UK. Argon's products include acute care and extended dwell catheters; the latter are used when there's limited accessibility to a patient's veins. Argon is also distributing LiDCO's minimally-invasive blood monitoring equipment in Japan and the company now has formal links with two other US healthcare businesses. Meanwhile, operationally, LiDCO's gross margin improved by two percentage points in the period to 70 per cent and, with revenues rising strongly, the operating loss reduced by 58 per cent year on year to £0.24m.
Management anticipates “a profitable second half to the year”, in part due to its new American partners. Meanwhile, Broker FinnCap expects full-year sales to rise from £6.2m to £7.7m, with adjusted profits of £300,000 in place of a similar loss last year.
LiDCO (LID) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 13p | MARKET VALUE: | £22.6m | |
| TOUCH: | 12.5-13.5p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 20.75p | LOW: 12p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 2p | NET CASH: | £1.01m | |
| Half-year to 31 Jul | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£000) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2.66 | -577 | -0.35 | nil |
| 2011 | 3.22 | -242 | -0.14 | nil |
| % change | +21 | - | - | - |
