23rd Jan 2014 12:12
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in Cyprotex PLC dropped by more than a fifth Thursday after it said that it expects to post a pretax loss for 2013 due to finance charges related to its redeemable loan notes and convertible loan notes with Trident Private Equity Fund III LLP.
The research organisation said that excluding the charges it expects to report record operating profits and revenues above market expectations.
However, it expects to post a pretax loss of between GBP1.0 million and GBP1.2 million after it booked extra finance costs of about GBP1.5 million because its shares were trading at a price some 20% above the conversion price for the loan notes. It had reported a pretax profit of GBP250,000 in 2012.
The company entered into a subscription agreement with Trident in August 2013, for the issue of GBP3 million in redeemable loan notes, convertible at 6 pence a share, and GBP4 million of unsecured convertible loan notes convertible at the same price. The loan notes reach maturity at September 30, 2018.
Shares in Cyprotex were trading down 21% at 9.75 pence Thursday morning. The stock has risen 60% since January 17.
Cyprotex, which provides services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, agrochemical and cosmetic industries, said it expects 2013 revenues to be GBP9.8 million, up from GBP8.3 million in 2012, as it saw encouraging revenue performance across all of its principal territories. It said the figure was slightly ahead of current market expectations.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation is also expected to be slightly ahead of market expectations at between GBP1.5 million to GBP1.6 million, up from GBP910,000 in the previous year, even including a one-off charge of GBP140,000 related to its rebranding in the US.
"Sales have risen in all territories and across the board of our technical offerings," said Chief Executive Officer Anthony Baxter in a statement. "We are particularly pleased in the customer uptake of our new toxicity assays eCiphrCardio and eCiphrNeuro."
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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