AorTech's full year operating losses widen on bad debt provisions

The biomaterials and medical device IP company said operating losses rose to $575,000 in the year ended 31 March 2016 from $455,000 the previous year.

The company incurred bad debt provisions from two major debtors, including $150,000 from SynCardia and $219,000 from iSense. SynCardia stopped making its monthly payments as it filed for bankruptcy while iSense owes debt under the terms of a licence regarding the continuous glucose monitoring business.

Meanwhile, the company was embroiled in litigation in regards to a former employee failing to return confidential information related to the group’s heart valve project and its polymers.

Group revenue climbed to $901,000 from $857,000 and net trading profit edged up to $128,000 from $98,000 before exceptional costs, exchange differences and bad debt provisions

Administrative expenses, before exceptional costs, foreign exchange differences and bad debt provisions came to $773,000, up slightly from $761,000 in the previous year.

Including bad debt provisions of $369,000, the net trading profit was reduced to a net trading loss of $241,000.

Shares fell 2.37% to 27.58p at 1531 BST.