Celsis sees 20% profit hike in fiscal 2007

Celsis International, a UK-based life science and laboratory services company, says that its profit before tax for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007, increased 20.1% to $8.7 million, equivalent to earnings per share of $0.26, up 29%. In addition, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were up 34.9% to $11.0 million.

Celsis said the earnings growth had been driven by a 43.3% hike in its revenues to $47.4 million, adding that this included a $9.3 million contribution from In Vitro Technologies, acquired for $30.0 million last summer (Marketletter August 14, 2006). The firm also reported that turnover from its analytical services division, which provided 43% of the group's sales in the previous fiscal year, increased 25.7% to $20.4 million.

Celsis' rapid detection operations, which provide microbial testing systems for the identification of bacterial contamination, achieved modest revenue growth, increasing 4.8% to $17.7 million. The company added, however, that turnover for the period had recovered from the 1% decline that it saw in the first six months of the fiscal year, citing both a resurgence of laboratory instrument sales, and healthy growth of its reagents and consumables business, as the basis for the division's performance.