Revenue flat, losses deepen at Kromek Group

(ShareCast News) - Kromek Group's board was looking up on Wednesday, despite flat revenues and sinking losses in its interim report.Revenue at the radiation detection technology firm remained flat in the six months to 31 October, at £3.2m.Gross margin fell from 70% last year to 53% this period, though that was in line with management expectations according to the report.The firm's loss before tax grew from £2.3m to £3m, and its adjusted EBITDA went from a £1.6m loss last year to the £2.2m loss this period.CEO Dr Amab Basu said Kromek made significant progress on its technology over the six months."Progress (has been) made in all three key target areas of CT, SPECT and portable advanced radiation detectors, where our proprietary technologies bring important and differentiated performance advantages."Particularly pleasing pleasing is that we report an increase in underlying revenues, which more than offset the absence of income we had received last year as part of the exclusivity payment by an OEM, demonstrating the advances made in the underlying business", Basu added.Kromek did report an increase in underlying revenue, by 26% to £3.2m. The report said this figure reflected the absence of a £600,000 payment received in the equivalent period last year from a CT OEM.During the period, Kromek raised £10.3m net through a firm placing and open offer. At the end of the period, it held cash and cash equivalents of £7.5m.Kromek continued its relationship with the US government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, delivering 1,000 units to the agency in the six months and being informed of DARPA's intention to source spectroscopic radiation detectors from Kromek.As of 13:50 GMT on Wednesday, shares in Kromek Group were up 2.52% to 30.5p.