Market News
Posted On Friday, January 18, 2008 at at 3:55 PM by Finance AnalysisBiosensors
Singapore's Biosensors International said on Friday it has received regulatory approval to sell its heart stents in Europe, and expects a return to profitability in the second half of its 2009 financial year.
The loss-making medical equipment maker has been waiting for its CE Mark since April 2005. The mark will enable Biosensors to sell its BioMatrix drug-eluting heart stent in Europe. A heart stent is an expandable mesh-like medical device that is inserted into a clogged artery and used as a scaffold to keep it open.
"With this approval we received, BioMatrix will be available in Europe and parts of Asia," said chief executive Lu Yoh-Chie in a conference call with reporters.
The firm, which in November posted a net loss of $3 million for its half year fiscal 2008, expects higher revenue from the heart stents to return it to profitability in fiscal year 2009.
"We believe in the first half we would continue to make losses, but in the fourth quarter or second half we will be in a position to break-even or even turn a profit," Lu said.
Kevin Sayer, the firm's chief financial officer, said total revenue for 2009 is expected to come in at around $100 million to $115 million, with revenue from heart stents contributing almost half.
The firm, which has been expanding in Asia, will start marketing its BioMatrix heart stent in China in 2010.
Chua Kee Lock, the company's president, told Reuters in an interview in September that Biosensors was looking to penetrate India, Taiwan and South Korea within the next 12 months. The firm bought over a Chinese medical company earlier this month.
Biosensors, with a market cap of $765 million, competes with healthcare giants such as Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories Inc .
Lu said he was not ruling out a takeover.
"Everything is possible, we do not rule out any possibilities going forward," Lu said.
Shares in Biosensors were suspended from trade on Friday. The stock has outperformed a weaker Singapore benchmark index to gain 15 percent so far this year, after it underperformed and ended 2007 little changed.
Source: Reuters
