Ian Gilham, chief executive of point-of-care diagnostics provider Axis Shield, believes that his company will almost double the sales of its key product in the US this year.
The company announced that it reached its goal of 4,000 sales of its Afinion blood-testing product, which is mainly sold in Europe and the US. Dr Gilham believes that its sales in the US will increase from 1,700 last year, to more than 3,000 in the current year because of the cost effectiveness for doctors of using Afinion, rather than sending blood samples to laboratories.
Afinion contributed revenues of £8.6m to the point-of-care division in 2008. Meanwhile, sales of the lower-margin NycoCard product, sold in developing markets, grew 21 percent to £20.6m.
Axis-Shield's Laboratory testing division increased its revenues 12 per cent in constant currency terms to £22.4m. This business develops markers in disease areas and has benefited from a close relationship with Abbott and the re-emergence of growth in its revenues from its homosysteine product.
The company incurred large exceptional costs totalling £8.8m, which mainly represent development costs. Before these items, EPS increased 19 per cent to 6.52p. Subject to revisions following the results, Investec forecasts EPS for the current year of 16.6p (6.7p in 2008).
| AXIS SHIELD (ASD) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 295p | MARKET VALUE: | £146m | |
| TOUCH: | 290-297p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 336p | LOW: 245p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 32 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE:* | 120p | NET DEBT: | 13% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 52.3 | -1.19 | -2.50 | nil |
| 2005 | 58.2 | 1.92 | 3.80 | nil |
| 2006 | 60.8 | 2.02 | 3.90 | nil |
| 2007 | 66.7 | 2.01 | 4.09 | nil |
| 2008 | 85.3 | -4.29 | 9.12 | nil |
| % change | +28 | +123 | ||
*Includes intangible assets £22.5, or 45p a share | ||||
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