Biacore- Year-end report 2004

18/02/05 Sweden, Biacore has released the year-end report for the year 2004.

The company has reported strong sales in Europe and a recovery in Japan in the fourth quarter all but compensated for a continuing weakness in the Americas. Total sales in the final quarter 2004 amounted to SEK 158.6 million (160.8). For the full-year 2004, sales were SEK 495.8 million (515.5), a decline of 4%. Excluding currency effects, full-year sales increased by 4%.

Operating income for the fourth quarter amounted to SEK 14.3 million (54.7) after non-recurring costs of SEK 32 million related to the successfully implemented turnaround program, defined in the Strategic Business Review. After total non-recurring costs of SEK 90 million, an operating loss of SEK 5.1 million (+29.5) was recorded for the full-year 2004.

Biacore is rapidly expanding its unique product portfolio for protein interaction analysis. The strategic roll-out of the array technology was initiated in late 2004, following a deal with AIST, a major Japanese research institute focused on proteomics. In early February 2005, the new Biacore(R)T100 was launched at the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities (ABRF).

The progress that Biacore has made in the final months of 2004 combined with an anticipated return to profitability in 2005 has allowed the Board to propose an unchanged dividend of SEK 3.00 per share for 2004.

In 2005, Biacore anticipates achieving an increase in sales and returning to historic levels of profitability with variations between the quarters being exaggerated by the launch of Biacore(R)T100 in the first quarter.

http://wpy.waymaker.net/client/waymaker1/WOLReleaseFile.aspx?id=73531&fn=wkr0001.pdf