Xaar (XAR) expects to report revenues of around £23m at its September half-year results, which have been revised down by £4m from £27m after inventories of the Xaar 1201 printhead were “returned for rework due to age”.
The inkjet printhead manufacturer expects to sell these inventories in its second half. Xaar’s expected turnover is 35 per cent beneath last year’s first-half level of £35.3m, and 48 per cent lower than the £44m it secured in the first half of 2017. Xaar accepts that it has struggled to realise the potential of its thin-film portfolio products, and is on the hunt for partners to provide investment and support in scaling up the range. It did not provide an update on this search in its latest trading update. But the shares rose 6 per cent to 94p in response to promising sales growth across a number of products, notably the Xaar 5601 printhead, which has experienced growth of 490 per cent over the first half.
Analysts at broker N+1 Singer forecast adjusted full-year 2019 pre-tax loss of £6.8m and a loss per share of 7.4p against a prior year loss of £2m and 2.2p.
