Agfa HealthCare's revenue remained almost stable versus last year's first quarter. Excluding currency effects, the business group posted a slight revenue increase. In the IT segment, both the Imaging IT business and the Enterprise IT business performed strongly. The segment posted strong growth figures in North America, Latin America and the North of Europe.
In the Imaging segment, revenue of the digital radiography business (consisting of Computed Radiography, Direct Radiography and the hardcopy business) decreased versus last year's first quarter. This is mainly explained by the fact that certification is still pending for a number of new CR and DR systems. Sales of the traditional X-ray products increased slightly.
Agfa HealthCare's gross profit margin declined from 36.0 percent to 35.1 percent. The effects of the business group's efficiency program were offset by mix effects. Recurring EBITDA reached 21.4 million Euro (or 7.8 percent of revenue). Recurring EBIT amounted to 11.6 million Euro (or 4.2 percent of revenue).
In the first quarter, Agfa HealthCare signed an agreement with Kunene Health Care. The medical product distribution company will supply and distribute all Agfa HealthCare products throughout South Africa.
In the field of digital radiography, Agfa HealthCare extended its range of computed radiography (CR) systems with the affordable tabletop CR 12-X digitizer. The system offers small clinics and private practices a cost-effective way to benefit from all the advantages of digital radiography.
Agfa HealthCare's order book and installed base for its innovative direct radiography (DR) solutions continued to grow in the first quarter. The business group signed a five-year contract with the US Navy for the supply of DR, PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) and speech recognition technology. With the technology, 42 ships will be connected to radiologists at the Walter Reed National Naval Medical Center. Any new ships that enter service in the contract period will also be equipped with Agfa HealthCare's technology. In the UK, Agfa HealthCare installed two DX-D 600 DR solutions at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust. The university hospital Brussels (Belgium) signed an agreement for the installation of a complete DX-D 800 DR X-ray room in its emergency department. The DX-D 800 is Agfa HealthCare's top-of-range DR solution. It offers a very broad range of applications for all types of examinations.
In Imaging IT, Agfa HealthCare is installing a complete IMPAX PACS/RIS (Radiology Information System) and Clinical Application solution at the new National Guard Health Affairs hospital in Al Madinah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The solution also includes IMPAX Business Intelligence and two DX-D 600 DR units. In the US, Agfa HealthCare will install its IMPAX Cardiovascular solution at Southern Regional Medical Center (Riv erdale, Georgia). The system will be integrated with the hospital's existing IMPAX for radiology solution. At the Stormont-Vail HealthCare hospital (Topeka, Kansas), Agfa HealthCare installed its IMPAX Cardiovascular Global Remote Incident Prevention (GRIP) monitoring solution. GRIP continually manages and monitors Agfa HealthCare's solutions throughout the hospital, identifying potential future conflicts and proactively notifying stakeholders of the situation. In the Netherlands, a major contract for PACS, RIS and NIS (Nuclear Information System) was signed with the Meander Medical Center in Amersfoort. With the agreement, Agfa HealthCare extends its excellent relationship with the Meander organization. The Chinese Harbin Medical Hospital #4 decided to install an IMPAX Data Center and to refresh the hardware of its current IMPAX PACS/RIS solution.
In Enterprise IT, the five hospitals of the German hospital group Diakonische Dienste Hannover will replace their existing Hospital Information System and Radiology Information System by Agfa HealthCare's ORBIS solutions.
- 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.