6th May 2014 09:10
LONDON (Alliance News) - BATM Advanced Communications Ltd Tuesday said its first-quarter revenue, gross profit and operating profit were all slightly ahead of management expectations, as the strong trading it saw in the fourth quarter of last year in its medical markets continued.
However, the company, which provides technology for the networked telecoms and medical laboratory equipment markets, said overall revenue fell to USD27.8 million in the three months to end-March, from USD30.2 million a year earlier, as lower revenue in its telecom unit offset an 8% rise in the medical unit.
It said it earned 55% of its revenue from the medical division in the quarter, up from 46% last year. That increase weighed on its gross margin, which was 33.8% in the first quarter, down from 35.9% a year earlier and 34.7% for 2013 as a whole.
Back in February, the company had reported a slight rise in 2013 revenue, as a 5.4% decline in the telecom unit failed to offset 8.2% growth in the medical unit. However, it swung to a pretax loss as it wrote down the value of an acquisition it made in 2008 and sales and marketing and research and development costs rose, but predicted a return to growth in 2014.
"The medical division has made a strong start to 2014, with a number of developments in both the diagnostics and sterilization businesses. Management expects this to continue throughout the year," the company said Tuesday.
"For the Telecom division, the group continues to see improvements due to the strategic shift implemented in the second half of last year. There is increased interest in its products from Tier 1 customers and it is expected to deliver improved results in the second half of 2014," it added.
BATM Advanced Communications shares were up 0.7% at 17.5 pence Tuesday morning.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
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