9th Oct 2014 07:23
LONDON (Alliance News) - Image Scan Holdings PLC shares dropped almost 30% at the market open Thursday, after it said it will report a bigger pretax loss and lower revenue for the financial year that just ended.
The manufacturer of x-ray screening systems said that after narrowing its first-half loss, trading and sales performance in the second half was disappointing.
"The performance in the second half was very much contingent on availability of a new X-ray generator for the company's portable X-ray systems to replace a unit that was no longer available. While development of the new generator has progressed through the prototype stages and the first production model is currently in testing in Image Scan's facility, customer deliveries have been delayed until November 2014," the company said in a statement.
The company said it will now report a pretax loss for the year ended September 30 of GBP500,000, wider than the GBP342,000 loss it reported the prior year. It said revenue will fall to GBP2.3 million, from GBP2.5 million a year earlier.
"To be reporting a loss in my first six months as chairman is disappointing. However in those first six months we have made real progress in the renewal and extension of our product range and in broadening our market access. As these new products become available and as we start working in the new markets in the early part of the next financial year I expect to see sales of our core portable X-ray systems recover and then grow strongly," said Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Mawer in a statement.
In June, Image Scan said its pretax loss narrowed in the half year to end-March, amid strong sales of its security products and reduced overheads following its restructuring a year earlier.
At the time it said it needed to focus on accelerating product development to drive its business forward, and said it will target growth in research and development and sales activity.
"Considerable progress has been made in the product development programmes that will provide the foundation for the future growth of the business. Important milestones have been reached in projects developing new X-ray generators, detector panels and control software," the company said in its statement Thursday.
Image Scan also Thursday announced a GBP250,000 contract win with an unnamed company for multiple Axis check point X-ray systems to be deployed at entrance and exit points for a new, high security site in Saudi Arabia.
It also said it is close to finalising a partnership that will give it proper access to key markets in North and South America.
The company has been extending its market reach with new orders from Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand.
Image Scan shares plummeted nearly 30% at the market open Thursday, but have recovered some ground, and are currently down 17.7% at 1.75 pence.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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