Microsaic revenues set to 'significantly exceed' 2020 levels

(Sharecast News) - Spectrometry instrument technology company Microsaic Systems said in a trading update on Monday that revenues for 2021 "significantly exceeded" 2020, recovering to a level "slightly ahead" of the pre-pandemic benchmark in 2019.
The AIM-traded firm said the improved position reflected the recapitalisation of the business in January via an oversubscribed placing raising a gross £5.5m, as well as its revised board composition and the strategic change of its business model from an instrument-centric sales focus to a "more commercial and collaboratively-based" business model centred on customer workflows, providing instrumentation, software, service and analytics to help solve real-world problems.

It said it expected to report revenues for the 12 months ended 31 December of £0.9m - a notable increase from the £0.2m revenues reported for 2020, and a recovery to beyond 2019's £0.87m.

Orders for the year exceeded £1m, which the board said represented a "significant milestone" for the company.

Following the effects of Covid-19 in 2020, sales in the first half of 2021 of £0.50m primarily consisted of demand from 2020 converting to orders, while the second half saw a strong intake of fresh orders, driven in part by newly-secured instrument and service business in the environmental and human health sector.

Microsaic said its backlog of orders remaining from 2021 would be shipped early in 2022, mainly reflecting global supply chain pressures resulting from the pandemic.

The company said it was working to mitigate disruption to its key supply chain, so that any future impact would continue to be minimal.

"If 2021 was about turnaround and transition, then 2022 is about significant business inflection," said chief executive officer Glenn Tracey.

"We have worked tirelessly in 2021, putting in place the necessary building blocks in and around our technology, extending our business model to cover workflows, software and services.

"The Covid-19 era has demonstrated the resilience of humans and ingenuity of our scientists, and Microsaic's ability to respond quickly with solutions to real-world problems."

Tracey said real-time detection was a "central facet" of advancing that endeavour, with Microsaic products "exceptionally well-placed" with the capability to operate in real-time, increasingly informed by prior data analysis.

"I am absolutely delighted about how Microsaic has emerged from the Covid-19 era, stronger than how we entered it.

"I am very optimistic about the future prospects for the business."

At 1236 GMT, shares in Microsaic Systems were down 7.69% at 0.18p.