Agfa-Gevaert today announced its first quarter results. Group sales amounted to 753 million Euro. In local currency, sales remained stable despite the continuous impact of the strong Euro, which affected the Group's competitive position, especially in the healthcare markets. Agfa-Gevaert again succeeded in substantially lowering its Sales and General Administration costs. In local currency, Agfa HealthCare's sales decreased 7.5 percent (12.0 percent including currency effects) to 294 million Euro. The market for traditional X-ray film continued to decline in volume. Sales of hardcopy film are stabilizing at a volume level slightly up compared to last year, but this was offset by price erosion due to currency effects. The strong Euro also led to price erosion and a weaker competitive position for the Computed Radiography (CR) systems. In the Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) segment, software sales were lower in anticipation of the launch of the next release of IMPAX. The further roll-out of the ORBIS system is running according to plan. For the whole of the IT segment (PACS, Cardiology and Hospital and Clinical IT), the book-to-bill ratio was 1.7.
The intensified focus on cost reduction allowed HealthCare to lower its SG&A expenses by almost 20 percent, but the results were affected by the weaker sales and adverse mix effects. Furthermore, the non-cash costs in R&D were 2.5 million Euro higher due to lower capitalisation and increased depreciation. The very high silver price also weighed on HealthCare's profitability, as approximately half of the business group's sales still comes from film products. The recurring EBITDA margin amounted to 11.0 percent of sales. Recurring EBIT was 17.2 million Euro, or 5.9 percent of sales.
In imaging, the Austrian St. Pölten hospital ordered 4 DX-Si X-ray systems. Combined with the DX-S, Agfa HealthCare's most advanced CR system and the NX workstation, the versatile DX-Si solution can handle a very comprehensive range of X-ray exams. Recently, the University Clinical Center of Giessen and Marburg (Germany) and the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena (Germany) both conducted a study to evaluate the performance of the DX-S system in pediatrics. Both studies concluded that the system allows an X-ray dose reduction by up to 50 percent, without reducing the diagnostic quality.
An important PACS agreement was signed with CETIR Grup Mèdic (CGM), one of Spain's leading private radiology providers. The group consists of the headquarters just outside Barcelona and 20 satellite sites. In Canada, where Agfa HealthCare already has a leading position, the province of New Brunswick selected HealthCare for the creation of a Diagnostic Imaging Repository for consolidating images and radiology reports into a central system. In the province of Ontario, HealthCare will team up with Teranet, a leading provider of information products, to implement the systems needed to centrally store digital patient images and reports of 33 hospital sites.
In enterprise-wide IT, the three acute care clinics of the important Märkische Kliniken GmbH hospital group (southern Westphalia, Germany) have started to replace their existing hospital software with Agfa's ORBIS Hospital Information System. Agfa HealthCare's ORBIS development site in the US, Sampson Regional Medical Center (Clinton, North Carolina) recently completed the first phase of its test. Partnering with the French Capgemini company, Agfa HealthCare is also in the running for the Assistance publique et Hôpitaux de Paris contract for the creation of an IT solution to centralize all patient data of 38 hospitals in Paris (France).
For further information, please visit: http://www.agfa.com
Related news articles:
- Agfa HealthCare Profile