Immucor Announces Fiscal Fourth Quarter Results

Thursday, July 23, 2009 4:06 PM

NORCROSS, Ga., July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Immucor, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLUD), a global leader in providing automated instrument-reagent systems to the blood transfusion industry, today reported financial results for the fiscal fourth quarter ended May 31, 2009.

Fourth Quarter Financial Highlights

Revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2009 was $79.0 million, up 15% from $68.6 million in the same period last year.
Gross margin was 69.9% in the quarter, compared with 72.0% in the prior year quarter. Current quarter gross margin included expenses of approximately $1.8 million related to the Quality Process Improvement Project.
Net income in the quarter was $19.4 million, compared with $18.3 million for the same quarter last year.
Diluted earnings per share totaled $0.27 in the quarter, compared with $0.26 for the same period last year. The current year quarter included the impact from the Quality Process Improvement Project of approximately $0.02 per diluted share, net of tax.
The current year quarter included the results of BioArray Solutions, which was acquired on August 4, 2008.

Full Year Results

For fiscal 2009, revenue was $300.5 million, up 15% from $261.2 million in the prior year.
Gross margin was 71.9%, up from 71.0% in the prior year. Full year gross margin included expenses related to the Quality Process Improvement Project of approximately $2.4 million.
Net income was $76.2 million, or $1.07 per diluted share, compared with $71.5 million, or $1.00 per diluted share in the prior year. Fiscal 2009 included expenses related to the Quality Process Improvement Project of approximately $0.02 per diluted share, net of tax.
Cash flow from operations for the year ended May 31, 2009 was $79.8 million, compared with $75.1 million in the prior year.
The current year financials included 10 months of results for BioArray.

"For fiscal 2009, we achieved record revenue, earnings and cash flow from operations," stated Dr. Gioacchino De Chirico, Immucor's President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our growth has been driven by the success of our automation strategy combined with the fact that our reagent product offering is necessary to ensure the safety of transfusions."

    Selected Product Revenue and Gross Margin
                                        ($ amounts in thousands)
                                                                 Revenue
                       Fiscal Q4 2009     Fiscal Q4 2008          Growth
                                 Gross                Gross
                     Revenue     Margin    Revenue    Margin    $       %
    Traditional
     reagents         $52,149    75.3%    $45,274     77.4%  $6,875    15%
    Capture reagents   17,057    84.1%     15,027     86.5%   2,030    14%
    Instruments         9,058    18.0%      8,312     16.0%     746     9%

Consolidated revenue was $79.0 million in the current year quarter, an increase of approximately $10.4 million, or 15%, over the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008. Revenue in the quarter benefited from both price and volume contributions. Revenue in the quarter was negatively impacted by approximately $3.0 million from foreign currency translation as compared with the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008.

Consolidated gross margin was $55.2 million, or 69.9% of revenue, in the current year quarter compared with $49.4 million, or 72.0% of revenue, in the prior year quarter. During the current year quarter, gross margin was negatively impacted by costs related to the Company's Quality Process Improvement Project, which focuses on improving the quality department's processes and procedures.

"Our Quality Process Improvement Project is progressing well and we continue to target a project completion date by the end of our third fiscal quarter of 2010," stated Dr. De Chirico. "We are confident that our efforts will produce a world-class quality system that will be the foundation for the future."

Operating Expenses

Operating expenses for the fourth quarter increased approximately $4.9 million, or 23%, over the prior year quarter primarily attributable to the BioArray acquisition as well as the Company's initiative to sell its products directly to the end user in the French and United Kingdom markets.

    Summary of Instrument Orders
                                    Q4 2009 Orders                Cumulative
    Instrument                  N.A. (1)     ROW(2)      Total     Orders (3)
    Echo                            65          20         85           603
    Galileo                          1           9         10           637
       (1) N.A. - North America (the U.S. and Canada)
       (2) ROW - all parts of the world other than the U.S. and Canada
       (3) Cumulative Orders - total orders received since the launch of the
           instrument

For fiscal 2009, the Company received 349 Echo orders and 63 Galileo orders. Of the cumulative orders since the instruments' launch, approximately 360 Echo orders and 596 Galileo orders were generating reagent revenue at their expected annualized run rate as of May 31, 2009, an increase of 91 Echo instruments and 23 Galileo instruments in the fiscal fourth quarter.

"The market's acceptance of our Echo instrument, which is targeted at the small- to medium-sized hospital segment, has been remarkable. In the first 2 years since launch, we achieved more than 600 orders, which represents approximately 10% of our estimated addressable worldwide market," stated Dr. De Chirico.

"We expect to launch our next generation Galileo instrument, the Galileo Neo(TM), in early 2010. Targeted at high volume customers, the Galileo Neo is our fourth generation automated instrument," stated Dr. De Chirico.

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