Agfa HealthCare's revenue grew by 4.0 percent compared to the first quarter of 2010. Excluding currency effects, the increase would amount to 1.6 percent. In Imaging, sales for traditional X-ray film products continued to decline. The price increases for these traditional film products - related to the high silver price - incite more and more hospitals to accelerate their investments in digital technology. As a consequence, volumes for hardcopy film and printers, as well as Computed Radiography (CR) systems, grew significantly. Direct Radiography (DR) sales performed above expectations. The first effects of the price increases for Agfa HealthCare's traditional film products are expected to become visible in the second half of the year.
In Imaging IT, the portion of the large PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) projects is growing due to the success of Agfa HealthCare's Data Center solutions. On the one hand, this shift feeds the order book but on the other hand, the revenue recognition process for these large projects takes longer compared to smaller-scale PACS projects. The effect of the slower revenue recognition is reflected in the first quarter top line. The second half of the year is expected to benefit from the strong order book.
The Enterprise IT business' revenue remained stable, with strong revenues in the German speaking part of Europe, where Agfa HealthCare's ORBIS solution is well established. In the countries were ORBIS was introduced more recently, the business is still in the investment phase.
Agfa HealthCare's gross profit margin amounted to 37.3 percent, versus 40.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010. The business group's profitability was affected by the silver price.
The business group's recurring EBITDA amounted to 31.8 million Euro (or 11.1 percent of revenue). Recurring EBIT reached 20.1 million Euro, or 7.0 percent of revenue, versus 27.6 million Euro and 10.0 percent in the first quarter of 2010.
In the first quarter, Agfa HealthCare announced that it was awarded a 3.5 million Euro grant by the Flemish Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) for its IT R&D program.
In the field of Imaging, Agfa HealthCare showed a number of new Direct Radiography (DR) and Computed Radiography (CR) solutions at the ECR 2011 trade event in Vienna (Austria). The DX-D 600 digital X-ray room, for instance, is the business group's most productive DR solution yet. In CR, a new family of entry-level desktop digitizers was launched at ECR 2011, including the CR 30-Xm, which can be used for both mammography and general radiography exams. Agfa HealthCare's CR 30-X digitizer was ranked first in the new KLAS single-plate CR market report 2011. KLAS is an independent research firm that specializes in monitoring and reporting on the performance of healthcare vendors.
In Imaging IT, Agfa HealthCare was awarded a US Government DIN-PACS contract for the third consecutive time. Agfa HealthCare is the only company that has held a DIN-PACS (Digital Imaging Network/Picture Archiving and Communications System) contract with the US government since 1998, and it is the government's top supplier of these systems. In the UK, Agfa HealthCare signed a seven-year deal with Birmingham Children's Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for the replacement of the Trust's existing Agfa HealthCare PACS and CR solutions, as well as its current third-party Radiology Information System (RIS). In Poland, Agfa HealthCare has implemented the country's largest PACS solution to date in the University Hospital in Krakow. The hospital consists of 32 departments and 60 out-patient clinics.
In the field of Enterprise IT, a number of important contracts were signed in the first quarter. The St. Vincenz Hospital in Limburg (Germany), for instance, is replacing its existing hospital information system (HIS) and digital archive with Agfa HealthCare's ORBIS HIS and HYDMedia document management system. Also in Germany, the Foundation of the 'Cellitinnen zur hl. Maria' is extending its use of ORBIS across its sites. Five of its hospitals were already using ORBIS and now the four remaining hospitals are replacing their existing systems by Agfa HealthCare's solution. In Luxembourg, the three hospitals of the François-Elisabeth Foundation signed an agreement for the replacement of their existing HIS and document management systems with Agfa HealthCare's ORBIS and HYDMedia solutions.
Related news articles:
- Agfa HealthCare's Profile
About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world’s leading companies in imaging and information technology. Agfa develops manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), for the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare), and for specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa is headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries around the globe. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 2,948 million euro in 2010.
About Agfa HealthCare
Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading global provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions. The company has nearly a century of healthcare experience and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990's. Today Agfa HealthCare designs, develops and delivers state-of-the-art systems for capturing, managing and processing diagnostic images and clinical/administrative information for hospitals and healthcare facilities, as well as contrast media solutions to enable effective medical imaging results. The company has sales offices and agents in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2010 were 1,180 million euro.