LONDON (Alliance News) - LiDCO Group PLC Tuesday announced the departure of Chief Executive Terry O'Brien next year, and expressed confidence in achieving profit and revenue growth for its full financial year despite posting a widened loss in the half year to end-July.
O'Brien will retire from the position on his 60th birthday next September. The company said that over the next year O'Brien and the board will seek out a suitable candidate as his successor.
The medical equipment company posted a pretax loss of GBP244,000 in the recent half year, widened from a loss of GBP113,000 in the same period the previous year, as revenue declined to GBP3.7 million from GBP4.2 million.
LiDCO's revenue was hampered by lower sales of disposables and surgery monitors in the UK and Japan, which offset growth from the company's direct sales channel in the US and the rest of the world.
Last year in the UK, the National Health Service provided incentives to drive the purchase of hemodynamic monitors. However these incentives were not repeated in the current year, restricting funding for customers, which hampered LiDCO's performance in the first half. Despite this, LiDCO installed 33 new surgery monitors in the UK, which the company said showed that its installed base of surgical monitors continues to grow.
In Japan, the company said it is reviewing its exclusive distribution arrangements, and is in the process of registering its non-invasive product.
In LiDCO's export markets, excluding Japan, revenues were up 16%, as the company continued to transition from a single exclusive distribution arrangement to a direct sales model in the US. Surgical disposable unit sales in export markets, also excluding Japan, were up 21%.
LiDCO said that whilst is expects a significant portion of its installed base of surgery monitors to be placed, meaning leased, rather than sold, the installed base will continue to drive its growth going forward and increase surgical disposable sales in the second half.
The company expects the pause in the UK market "to be short lived", and said it remains on track to deliver growth in revenues and profitability for the full year.
Shares in LiDCO are untraded Tuesday at 13.25 pence.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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