Proteome Sciences swings to EBITDA loss, CEO steps down

Proteome Sciences announced a significant drop in first-half revenue and profit on Friday, alongside the departure of its chief executive.

The AIM-traded company said total revenue decreased to £2.22m for the six months ended 30 June, down from £3.21m in the same period last year, indicating challenges in its core business segments.

It said the decline was evident across key revenue streams, with TMT reagent sales and royalties falling to £1.85m from £2.2m a year earlier.

Proteomics service revenue experienced a sharper decrease, dropping to £0.37m compared to £1.01m in the prior year.

That downturn contributed to a substantial reduction in gross profit, which plummeted to £0.2m from £1.77m.

Compounding the revenue shortfall, the company's cost of sales and administrative expenses rose to £3.92m, up from £3.37m in the first half of 2023.

The increase in costs led to an adjusted EBITDA loss of £1.24m, swinging from a profit of £0.27m in the same period last year.

Amid the financial challenges, Proteome Sciences announced that chief executive officer Dr Mariola Soehngen would step down from her position and as a director of the company at the end of January, after four years of service.

The board said the process to appoint her successor had started.

“During the first half, the TMT business was affected by the challenging background to the biotech market with reduced research and development budgets and postponement of projects which had continued from 2023,” said CEO Dr Mariola Soehngen.

“TMT revenues were down 16% compared to the same period last year.

“We believe that customers mainly held off placing orders while waiting for the launch and availability of the new TMTpro 35plex tags post the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) meeting in June.”

Dr Soehngen said that resulted in a significant increase in orders during the third quarter, with that expected to continue during the fourth quarter.

“The company expects that the improved orders should lead to higher sales for the full year results and a return to long term growth.

“The company considers that the commercialisation of the new plexDIA tags, the addition of regular and multiplexed DIA services together with the return to growth in TMT and from our traditional service business will underpin the company's recovery and return the business back to growth across its proteomics activities.”

At 1125 BST, shares in Proteome Sciences were down 25.5% at 2.6p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.