12th Apr 2016 08:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Deltex Medical Group PLC on Tuesday said its pretax loss widened in 2015 as it continues to ramp up its operations, while revenue dipped slightly due to a tough UK market.
Deltex, which makes oesophageal Doppler monitoring technology, said its pretax loss for the year to the end of December was GBP3.6 million, compared to a GBP3.1 million loss a year earlier as it made further investments in the business, causing gross margin to decline to 63% from 70%.
This was exacerbated by revenue falling slightly to GBP6.4 million from GBP6.5 million, primarily down to a fall in probe sales in the UK caused by squeezed budgets across the National Health Service.
This offset 41% growth in its revenue from the US, driven by rising probe sales and by the number of US platform accounts on Deltex's books rising to 17 from 6 at the start of 2015. This has increased to 20 in the first few months of 2016.
International probe revenue rose 27%, though this was held back by the weak euro.
"Deltex made significant progress in 2015 despite continuing difficulties in the UK. Total export sales were approximately 20% ahead with over 40% growth in the USA, which has become our key territory for development. Whilst trading in the UK will continue to be challenging, we expect this overseas success to drive overall group growth going forward," said Nigel Keen, Deltex's chairman.
"We are focused on increasing the number of US platform accounts, with the consequent probe revenue run-rate, and on improving margins, reducing overheads and adding incremental revenue streams in the business as a whole. Successful implementation of these key tasks will deliver the operating cash required for us to continue to grow our business from our own internally generated resources," he added.
Deltex shares were down 9.5% to 4.18 pence.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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