News blog
Omega Diagnostics
- BY: Andrew Hore |
- POSTED: 07/07/2008 |
A strong contribution from last year’s acquisitions helped Omega Diagnostics grow in 2007-08.
Genesis Diagnostics and Cambridge Nutritional Sciences contributed seven months figures to Omega’s results. They accounted for two-fifths of group revenues of £3.49m in the year to March 2008. The revenues of the ongoing Omega operations were flat at £2.08m. A loss of £1.14m last year, which was mainly due to exceptional costs, was turned into a profit of £124,000 in 2007-08 – after a net exceptional credit of £50,000. A tax credit helped to flatter earnings per share of 2.4p.
The acquisitions are going to be the focus for growth. A simple home test for food intolerance called Food Detective, which covers 59 foods and takes 40 minutes to generate results, will be launched in pharmacies and health food stores later this year. It has been sold via the company’s website up until now but still generated £217,000 in revenues in its most recent full year.
A larger scale, professional testing system is aimed at laboratories. The first application is food intolerance testing – covering more than 200 foods. There are 64 tests in a kit and each kit costs around €5,500. This is cheaper and quicker than the existing, competitive technology. A related lab services called FoodPrint can tailor the test to specific groups.
These products can be sold through Omega’s distribution network which covers well over 100 countries. A test for Herpes Simplex virus is being launched. Omega would also like to add more diagnostic businesses to the group. Management says that there are plenty of small acquisitions that it could make in the diagnostics sector.
House broker Landsbanki forecasts revenues of £5m and profits of £720,000 for the current financial year. First quarter revenues were just short of £1.4m so Omega is already well on its way to this forecast revenue.
Omega shares improved by 0.5p to 28.5p, valuing the company at £4.2m. The shares are trading on less than 10 times prospective earnings for 2008-09.
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