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LONDON (Alliance News) - Israel based technology company BATM Advanced Communications Ltd Monday said it expects to meet full-year market profit expectations, although it warned its revenue will be hit by the strong dollar and it reported a swing to a pretax loss for its first half.
For the half year to end-June, BATM posted a pretax loss of USD2.0 million, swung from a pretax profit of USD203,000 a year before, as revenue fell to USD47.6 million from USD56.7 million.
The fall in revenue was primarily a result of the strength of the dollar against the euro, Moldavian lei and Romanian ron in the period, the company said. Stripping out the hit from foreign exchange, revenue in its Bio-Medical division would have been 10.3% higher, compared to a 12.4% fall at actual exchange rates.
In its Telecom business, revenue fell by USD5.3 million as the division continued to wind down its legacy product business.
BATM said it has entered its second half in a better position than it had in the previous year. It expects its Bio-Medical division to continue to accelerate through the second half of the year and its Telecom business to improve compared to the first half.
"Whilst we cannot predict the extent, full year 2015 revenues will be adversely affected by foreign exchange fluctuations. However, the effect of reduced revenues in our reporting currency has an immaterial impact on operating profit because expenses are mostly in the same currency as revenues. As a result, we expect to report full-year profitability in line with market expectations," sad Chief Executive Officer Zvi Marom in a statement.
Shares in BATM were down 5.2% at 17.43 pence Monday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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