Penarth headquartered global diagnostics firm EKF Diagnostics said expected accelerated revenue growth anticipated this year will now not be realised until 2024.
In a trading statement the Alternative Investment Market listed company said both its point-of-care and life sciences businesses have performed well in the first half of this year.
However, its revised guidance statement said that while good progress is being made to increase its fermentation capacity, it said the process of validation and verification had not been sufficiently factored into current timescales for installed equipment to become fully operational.
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With the additional impact of customer needs for downstream processing becoming apparent, it said these factors has meant that only limited scale-up revenues will be generated from additional capacity this year. However, it anticipates a steadier built up of revenues during 2024.
Its share was down 11% in early trading.
For the full year to December 31, it now expects to deliver revenues of around £53m and Ebitda in the region of £10m.
The firm’s founder and former chief executive, Julian Baines, has confirmed he will remain executive chair - which was envisaged as a short-term role when announced back in February - with the decision made to halt the recruitment of a new chief executive.
Penarth-born Mr Baines said: “At our last trading update, we flagged that the delivery of management’s adjusted Ebitda expectations for this year remained very much dependent on the timing of bringing revenues from our new life sciences capacity online. We remain very confident about the longer-term growth prospects from our newly expanded fermentation capacity, but believe it is prudent to reduce short-term guidance to reflect the revenue build now starting in 2024.
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“I am pleased to confirm my increased commitment to EKF as executive chairman, reflecting my determination to ensure that our newly expanded South Bend facility is a success. I’m also delighted that we are delivering steady growth in our point-of-care division and remain very confident in our ability to deliver the longer-term, significant growth prospects for our Life sciences business.”
EKF has also appointed a new chief financial officer in Steve Young, having been working as a consultant for the business over the last two months. He joins EKF from Trellus Health where he served as interim chief financial officer.
He has experience with AIM-listed businesses having served as chief financial director at Pure Wafer plc (which was based in Swansea) and prior to that at BBI Holding, which admitted to AIM in 2004. During his seven-year tenure at BBI he reported to Mr Baines when he was its chief executive.