LONDON (Alliance News) - LiDCO Group PLC Tuesday posted a small rise in pretax profit for its recently ended financial year as lower costs offset a decline in revenue, and forecast further profit for the coming year.
The healthcare technology firm posted a pretax profit of GBP238,000 for the year to end-January, up from GBP217,000 a year before, as a decline in revenue to GBP8.3 million from GBP8.6 million was offset by lower administrative expenses.
In the previous year the company had posted exceptional costs of GBP100,000 related to the reorganisation of its customer services department.
LiDCO attributed the decline to revenue to weakness in the UK and Japan.
In the UK sales were hit by hospitals moving to holding lower levels of disposable inventories and lower surgery monitor sales. Additionally incentives for National Health Service hospitals were not repeated, further compounding sales.
In Japan no monitor or disposable sales were made during the year, compared to GBP269,000 a year before, as installations of monitors has been slower than expected, as are disposable usage rates. LiDCO noted that Japan is a "conservative market", and it is up against a highly embedded competitor.
LiDCO also announced Tuesday that its LiDCOrapid V2 Unity software has been cleared for sale in Japan, which it believes expands its product offering and differentiates it from its competitor.
"We are now debt free, well-funded and expect to be cash generative in the current financial year. We have a strong position in our domestic market coupled with a growing surgery disposables business both domestically and in export territories," Terry O'Brien said in a statement.
Shares in LiDCO are trading down 4.2% at 9.70 pence Tuesday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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