Trading Statement

RNS Number : 1537Q

Image Scan Holdings PLC

10 October 2013

 



10 October 2013

Image Scan Holdings plc

("Image Scan" or "the Company")

PRE CLOSE TRADING UPDATE

The Board of Image Scan, specialists in the field of real-time 3D and 2D x-ray imaging for the Security and Industrial Inspection markets, today provides shareholders with a trading update, highlighting the trading position of the Company for the year ending 30 September 2013.

After a comparatively slow start to the year, new orders of £2.5m were secured in the second half across the whole product range, giving a total of new orders in the year of £3.3m (2012: £2.5m).  Of particular note were two repeat sales of the SVXi vehicle screening system to an existing customer and a number of multiple unit contracts for the FlatScan portable screening system.

The Board anticipates revenue for the year ended 30 September 2013 at £2.5 million (2012: £4.3 million), which does not reflect the underlying performance of the Company.  The receipt of a large one-off contract to the nuclear sector in 2011 and the timing of a substantial security contract immediately prior to the end of the 2011 financial year end provided 2012 with an opening order book of £2.2m which accounted for more than half of the revenue reported in 2012.  By comparison 2013 opened with an order book of £0.4m and during the year secured new orders of £3.3m (2012: £2.5m), an increase of 32%.  The lead time for key components has meant that a significant proportion of these sales will now fall into the first quarter of 2014 resulting in a closing order book of £1.2m.  This can be best illustrated in the table below:

	Opening Order Book	New Order Intake	Closing Order Book	Reported Revenue
2012	£2.2m	£2.5m	£0.4m	£4.3m
2013	£0.4m	£3.3m	£1.2m	£2.5m

During the year the Board carried out restructuring to reflect the repositioning of the business towards standard product sales and to streamline operations.  This had the effect of reducing ongoing overheads by 20%, the benefit of which flowed through in the last quarter of the year.

The year end cash balance was £11,000 (2012: £69,000) and the Company maintains an overdraft facility of £100,000 with the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Image Scan's CEO, Louise George, commented, "Whilst the intake of new orders during the year has been an encouraging sign of the underlying progress of the Company, the uneven phasing of these orders has resulted not only in disappointing interim results but also lower reported revenue for the whole year.  Following the mid-year restructuring and given the ongoing volume of sales, the Board believes that it has reduced the overheads to a level at which the Company can become viable on a sustainable basis".

-ENDS-

For further information, please contact:

Image Scan Holdings plc                                                               Tel: [phone]

Brian Emslie, Chairman

Louise George, CEO

[e-mail]

Cantor Fitzgerald Europe                                                             Tel: [phone]

Mark Percy / Rick Thompson (Corporate Finance)

Richard Redmayne / Paul Jewell (Corporate broking)

About Image Scan Holdings plc

Image Scan Holdings plc (AIM: IGE) is focused on the development and commercialisation of market leading real-time x-ray solutions for use in the global Security and Industrial inspection markets.  The Company's Security portfolio includes the Axis range of baggage inspection systems; the FlatScan range of portable bomb and suspect package detection systems; and SVXi, a small vehicle inspection system.  The Industrial inspection solutions include the MDXi product range, cabinet x-ray systems for laboratories and production lines. The Company is now broadening its scope to look at other key applications where its technology can be adopted, such as in the Medical devices industry.  The Company was founded in 1996 and joined AIM in 2002.

For further information on the Company, please visit: www.ish.co.uk - and for further information on its products, please visit: www.3dx-ray.com

 

END

 

 

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