Immunodiagnostic Systems recovers 'strongly' in H2

(Sharecast News) - Diagnostic testing kits producer Immunodiagnostic Systems said on Friday that trading had "recovered strongly" in the second half of the year, bouncing back from adverse impacts stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic seen in the first half.
Immunodiagnostic anticipates unaudited revenue from the second-half will be £19.0m, up from £13.7m in the first and representing 39% half-on-half growth. Overall revenues for the twelve months ended 31 March amounted to £32.7m, down from £39.3m in the prior year.

The AIM-listed group stated that the development of its automated business unit strongly correlated with the placement of new instruments, with each new instrument generating recurring incremental revenues, meaning that instrument placements/sales in the division came to 79 in the second half, up from 61 at the same time a year earlier and bringing full-year placements/sales to 100 - the company's strongest rate of placements in eight years.

During the year, Immunodiagnostic stated it had "carefully managed" its cost base, with fixed costs set to be around £3.5m to £4.0m lower than planned as a result of targeted cost actions and changes to working practices aimed at mitigating the impact of the pandemic on underlying earnings.

"The performance of the business during H2 FY21 was extremely positive as all key speciality revenue streams in our Automated Business unit returned to growth and the accelerated rate of placements of new analysers lays the foundation for future growth from recurring assay sales," said the firm.

"We are now very confident that moving forward the revenue growth seen in this business unit pre-pandemic will continue, and most likely accelerate because the Vitamin D products which have historically depressed growth rates are a progressively less significant proportion of the product mix. Thus the underlying growth in the speciality business should increasingly show through."

As of 1030 BST, Immunodiagnostic shares had shot up 13.51% to 210.0p.