GlobeNewswire•February 26, 2019
IBA Trading Update
Return to net profitability in H2
Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, February 26, 2019 - IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A., EURONEXT), the world’s leading provider of proton therapy solutions for the treatment of cancer, today provides a trading update ahead of the Company’s full-year results on March 21, 2019.
As previously announced, IBA signed seven Proteus®ONE* contracts in 2018, three of which have started to generate revenues in 2018. The four outstanding Proton Therapy contracts will not be recognized in the 2018 numbers anymore. The year also saw double-digit growth of Proton Therapy service revenues, a record order intake in the Other Accelerators division and good performance of the Dosimetry segment.
Over the year, IBA has made significant progress towards sustained profitability through a company-wide focus on operating expenses and cost-efficiency. These initiatives have resulted in an operating expense reduction of more than EUR 15 million in 2018.
Concurrently, with the strength of the elements mentioned above, the Company moved into profit at both a REBIT and Net Income level in the second half compared with the first half of 2018.
For the full year, IBA confirms that it will meet its 2018 full-year guidance of positive REBIT. At the net result level, the Company now expects to post a single digit (in EUR million) loss, a significant improvement on the net loss of EUR 39.2 million a year earlier.
Olivier Legrain, Chief Executive Officer of IBA commented: “IBA has made a strong recovery in 2018, reinforcing our position as global leader in the proton therapy market. Although current market conditions remain challenging and the signing and financing of new contracts is hard to forecast, we are confident in the longer-term prospects for the proton therapy market. We begin 2019 with a clear focus on driving growth through continued product innovation that meets the needs of customers and patients, underpinned by tight control of our costs to achieve sustained profitability.”
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