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(Alliance News) - BATM Advanced Communications Ltd on Monday said it swung to pretax profit in the first half of 2019, but revenue slipped on weakness in the Networking & Cyber unit.
The networking solutions and medical technology provider said it swung to a pretax profit of USD1.2 million for the six months to the end of June, compared to USD1.3 million loss reported a year earlier, despite revenue slipping to USD56.2 million from USD58.2 million.
BATM Advanced explained that it has a strong backlog and is on track to deliver "significantly" higher revenue in the second half of 2019 - its seasonally stronger period - compared with the first half of 2019, along with improved margins, in line with the board's expectations.
On a divisional basis, revenue in the Bio-Medical unit increased by 2.1% to USD30.2 million, primarily due to growth in the Distribution unit. On a constant currency basis, the Bio-Medical division revenue growth was 7.8%.
The Distribution unit accounted for 81% of the Bio-Medical division's revenue in the first half of 2019. In Israel, the division's Zer Laboratories subsidiary achieved strong growth in sales of diagnostic tests for pregnancy and cancer. During the period, there was also an increase in the provision of the new genetics screening tests for the Israeli market, the company noted.
BATM Advanced said it continued to increase revenue generated under its contract with a large medical facility in Eastern Europe for the distribution of Roche diagnostic instruments and reagents.
Turning to Networking & Cyber division, revenue declined to USD26 million from USD28.6 million year-on-year due to certain projects in the ICT solutions & services business commencing in the second half of 2019 that were originally scheduled for the first half.
More positively, BATM Advanced said it has made progress in advancing its software-defined networking offer as part of its partnership with semiconductor supplier Arm.
"BATM delivered a good performance in the first half of the year, with increased sales in the areas that we have identified as key to our future growth," said Chief Executive Zvi Marom.
"Consequently, we expect to report good growth for full year 2019, in line with the board's expectations," added Marom.
BATM Advanced shares were trading 1.2% higher on Monday morning in London at 43.30 pence each.
