16th Mar 2015 09:36
LONDON (Alliance News) - ClearStar Inc Monday expressed confidence in delivering strong growth in 2015, after it posted a swing to a pretax loss for 2014 as a result of costs related to its initial public offering on AIM in July.
The background check technology provider posted a pretax loss of USD1.7 million, swung from a pretax profit of USD722,000 in 2013, as costs related to its listing on AIM and acquisitions offset a rise in revenue to USD10.9 million from USD8.0 million.
ClearStar raised USD15 million in its initial public offering in July 2014.
Revenue growth was boosted by a string performance from all three of its business units, particularly 90% growth in its Medical Information Services business. ClearStar attributed the growth in the MIS business to gaining market share from competitors, a strong performance from its drug testing offering and additional products it launched during the year.
Gross profit margin reduced to 58.0% from 61.4% due to a shift in the product mix towards the lower margin MIS business. However, ClearStar said it believes its gross margin will improve as it improves its technology and reduces costs amongst its suppliers.
The company said it had maintained its momentum from the second half of 2014 into 2015, and in February won a contract worth between USD1.3 million to USD1.5 million.
Shares in ClearStar are trading down 4.0% at 60.00 pence Monday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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