Results Round-up

Deltex Medical Group said that product delays in its overseas markets and cash difficulties in the NHS weighed on its annual revenue, leading to wider pre-tax losses.

The AIM-listed company said its pre-tax loss rose to £3.1m, a 40.9% increase year-on-year, as revenue declined 16.3% to £4.6m, in what it described as a "difficult year".

Deltex, whose main product are oesophageal Dopple monitoring systems used to measure blood flow during surgery, cited de-stocking in the NHS as a driving factor behind a 20% decline in sales of surgical probes and a 10% drop in revenue from critical care probes.

The NHS was also criticised by the company for its implementation of oesophageal Doppler monitoring systems which was "dramatically scaled down in ambition" and was introduced over a year late, as hospitals were allowed to adopt different technologies as substitutes without incurring in financial penalties.

Sales of surgical probe in the US, a market into which the company has been expanding, grew 14% but were hampered by the strong pound and grew 20% in local currency.

Shares in Modern Water sank 14% after reporting wider losses and a slowdown in its key Chinese market.

The producer of water filtration, desalination and quality monitoring said China saw its weakest growth in 24 years in 2014 as contract negotiations were taking longer than expected.

Revenues fell 21.4% to £2.77m while losses widen to £17.72m from £4.8m, driving losses per share down 259.9% to 22.24p.

The challenges in China caused lower revenues in the membrane and monitoring divisions.

Modern Water also recorded £12.8m of exceptional costs after deciding to record a "significant" non-cash impairment to goodwill in the membrane division due to the time taken to close commercial contracts for forward osmosis, together with other costs associated with the resignation of founder and executive chairman Neil McDougall and the departure of one other member of staff.

However, there was encouraging news last year as the group was appointed as the favourite bidder for a wastewater treatment contract worth £22m in Gibraltar, which is expected to generate more sizeable revenues, while its monitoring division was awarded a new contract in the Middle East.