First quarter revenues down 7% at Trinity Biotech

Revenues at Irish medical diagnostic firm Trinity Biotech fell by 7 per cent in the first quarter, with turnover impacted by the strength of the dollar.

The company, which is based in Bray, Co Wicklow, and quoted on the Nasdaq exchange, said revenues declined from €25.3 million to €23.5 million versus the same quarter last year. However, on a like-for-like basis excluding the impact of currency fluctuations, sales were down 4 per cent to $24.3 million.

Trinity Biotech, which develops, manufactures and markets diagnostic systems for the point-of-care and clinical laboratory segments of the diagnostic market, announced a pretax loss of €1.2 million, versus a €4.3 million profit for the same period a year earlier.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and share option expense for the quarter was $3.4million while the gross margin for the three months was 43.1 per cent, as against 47.9 per cent for the corresponding quarter in 2015.

Operating profit decreased from $4.3 million to $1.8 million, largely due to the lower revenues and gross margin this quarter.

Point-of-care revenues fell by $1.3 million or 28 per cent, from $4.6 million to $3.7 million. This was attributable to lower than expected HIV sales in Africa. Clinical laboratory revenues increased from $20.7 million to $21 million, an increase of 2 per cent.

Research and Development (R&D) expenses increased from $1 million to $1.1 million, while selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses increased from $6.3 million to $7 million, mainly due to non-cash foreign currency retranslation charges.

Last month the company announced the commencement of a share repurchase programme worth $1.5 million, of which $1.3 million was settled during Trinity’s first quarter.