Thanks to a July trading update, City analysts already knew medical proteins supplier Abcam (ABC) would report a 5 per cent improvement in revenues to £128m for the 2013-14 financial year. What they didn’t know was that currency headwinds would disguise underlying revenue growth closer to 9 per cent. In the same vein, statutory catalogue sales grew 6 per cent, but constant-currency catalogue sales actually improved 10 per cent to £118m. Brokerage Investec said the strength of sterling would prompt a 2 per cent downgrade to its EPS forecasts.
There were some signs of recovery in Abcam’s key markets last year, as the federal budget problems eased in the US and European sales were buoyed by strong performances in the UK and Switzerland. Abcam also consolidated its footprint in Asia Pacific by opening a new office in Shanghai in February.