LONDON (ShareCast) - Medical diagnostics firm Omega said full year profit tumbled 22 per cent following a slowdown in growth in European markets.

Adjusted profit before tax fell to £0.78m in the year to the end of March from £1.0m in 2012. Annual turnover was little changed at £11.3m compared to £11.1m previously.

Gross profit rose 1% to £7.1m while adjusted EPS rose to 1.3p from 1.2p a year earlier. Net debt at the period end was £0.7m versus £0.1m in 2012.

Food Intolerance revenue climbed 13% to £4.39m while allergy and autoimmune revenue fell 7% to £4.16m. Infectious disease/other revenue dropped 1% to £2.71m.

Chairman David Evans said: "More than half of group turnover is generated in the UK and Europe, predominantly through the Food Intolerance and Allergy/Autoimmune divisions. The economic uncertainty in this region has led to a slowdown in growth in European in vitro diagnostics markets and the ability to grow our own business is not immune from the broader landscape."

"To counter risk in these areas, we have a strategy to focus on the emerging BRIC markets and our success in growing revenue in the year ahead will be dependent on whether sales into these higher growth territories can compensate for the pressures being experienced in Europe and elsewhere."

Omega added: "Beyond the immediate term, our ability to drive growth will be best delivered through the successful commercialisation of the CD4 test and automated allergy tests on the IDS-iSYS instrument. A significant amount of progress has been made in the past year and it is now time to deliver on these strategies."



CJ

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