EKF Diagnostics boosts earnings in first half

(ShareCast News) - Point-of-care business EKF Diagnostics Holdings announced its unaudited interim results for the six months to 30 June on Monday, ahead of market expectations.The AIM-traded firm said it has an installed base of over 90,000 analysers globally and manufactures over 56 million tests annually.Revenue was up 18% to £17.51m during the period, with gross profit up 10% to £8.42m.Adjusted EBITDA rose 57% to £2.02m, with cash generated from operations of £1.4m against £2.1m cash used in the first half last year.Cash at 30 June was £3.24m, up from £2.08m, and net debt was £4.3m, narrowing from £8.8m."By simplifying the business and providing a clear focus for the management team to deliver a return to profitable and cash generative growth, I believe we have established a solid platform to support high quality sustainable growth," said non-executive chairman Christopher Mills."Whilst we still have much to do and many of the benefits of our restructuring programme are still to be fully felt by the group, the early indications from these first half results provides us with confidence in hitting the higher end of our performance targets for 2016 and delivering further growth of the business in 2017."