LONDON (Alliance News) - Bioquell PLC on Friday said it swung to a profit in 2015, although revenue slipped and it said 2016 has "started steadily".
Bioquell, which provides specialist microbiological control technologies to the healthcare, life science and defence markets, said it made a pretax profit of GBP0.6 million in 2015, having suffered a GBP4.8 million pretax loss in 2014.
During the year, it made a profit on disposal of GBP33.6 million from the sale of TRaC Global Ltd, while exceptional charges were also lowered to GBP0.2 million from GBP3.9 million.
Revenue, however, slipped slightly to GBP26.9 million from GBP27.3 million, as a decline in service revenue and flat healthcare revenue offset growth in life sciences revenue.
"The board believes that the group's product range is well positioned to benefit from strong underlying drivers of growth, including evolving regulatory requirements, in the Life Sciences and Healthcare sectors," Chairman Nigel Keen said in a statement, adding that the year has "started steadily".
Also on Friday, Bioquell announced a plan to return GBP42.7 million to shareholders through a tender offer, at a price of GBP2.00 per share for half of Bioquell's issued share capital.
As a result of this, Bioquell is not proposing payment of a dividend for 2015.
Shares in Bioquell were trading up 6.1% at 175.00 pence on Friday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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