REG - Novacyt S.A. - Full year trading update

Novacyt SAAnnouncement

30/01/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 1968V  Novacyt S.A.  30 January 2025

Novacyt S.A.

("Novacyt", the "Company" or the "Group")

 

Full year trading update

 

Paris, France, and Manchester, UK - 30 January 2025 - Novacyt (EURONEXT
GROWTH: ALNOV; AIM: NCYT), an international molecular diagnostics company with
a broad portfolio of integrated technologies and services, announces an
unaudited full year trading update for the year ended 31 December 2024 ("FY
2024"), a period which has consolidated and positioned the business for
long-term growth, delivering a reduction in the Group's cost base and a
rationalisation of products and services.

 

Financial update

·    Unaudited Group statutory revenue for FY 2024 is expected to be c.
£19.6m (FY 2023*: £10.6m)

-      representing a YoY growth of 85%, driven by the acquisition of
Yourgene Health ("Yourgene")

·    Yourgene FY 2024 revenues of £15.3m (FY 2023: £16.4m excluding
COVID sales on a proforma basis)

-      reflecting a reduction in non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT)
services revenues following the Taiwan divestment, coupled with a reduction in
sequencing revenues from a key customer

·    Yourgene delivered solid growth in both clinical and instrumentation
parts of the Group:

-      Reproductive Health up 26% YoY on a proforma basis

-      Ranger ® Technology ("Ranger") consumables up 13% YoY on a
proforma basis

·    Primer Design was broadly flat YoY (excluding COVID sales),
delivering sales of £4.3m in FY 2024, halting the recent YoY revenue decline

·    Cash position at 31 December 2024 was £30.5m (30 June 2024:
£32.9m), and the Group remains debt free

 

*excludes any Yourgene revenue pre-acquisition (8 September 2023) and removes
IT-IS International revenue as per IFRS 5

 

Commercial progress

 

Clinical

The Group expects to report growth in its Reproductive Health business of 26%
on a proforma basis, due to the continued strong uptake of its products in
Australia, following a nationwide reimbursement pathway by the Australian
government. For its NIPT technologies customers, Novacyt continues to
strengthen its competitive position in the NIPT market with a series of
upgrades to the IONA Nx NIPT workflow, which now has the capability to run
twice the samples in one run than previously possible. In October 2024,
Novacyt held its IONA Nx NIPT User Meeting in Paris which provided valuable
customer insights to enable the development of future NIPT roadmaps. The
commercial team also worked closely with its first NIPT workflow customer,
Genetix in Colombia, for the commercial launch of its NIPT service offering to
clinics in the region. In addition, the commercial team supported a new NIPT
customer with a launch and educational awareness event in Kazakhstan to drive
clinical demand within local clinics and hospitals.

 

The Group has also developed additional analysis capabilities, initially as a
research use only ("RUO") tool, to expand Novacyt's NIPT offering, including
copy number variation ("CNV") analysis for its IONA Nx NIPT Workflow, to meet
the changing market needs of some of the Company's European lab customers. The
RUO tool is expected to be released later this month, with a planned IVDR
submission next year.

 

In December 2024, the Group launched an mpox (monkeypox) clade differentiation
kit that is used for surveillance and monitoring, rather than being used for
actually detecting mpox in patient samples. Due to the competitive nature of
the mpox testing market, this new differentiation kit enables Novacyt to
provide a unique value proposition to a niche customer segment that is
reviewing mpox trends. As stated in the Group's interim results in September
2024, whilst sales of Novacyt's two mpox assays are being generated, these are
not material and the Group does not expect this to change in the near term.

 

Instrumentation

Novacyt expects to report 13% growth for its Ranger consumables, year-on-year,
which will benefit the gross margin of the Group. This positive trajectory is
expected to continue as the Group looks to launch a new Ranger Technology
platform for customers carrying out long read sequencing, during this calendar
year, and the Company is currently working on the go-to-market and commercial
product launch roll-out plans.

 

RUO

In November 2024, the Group launched two new multiplex assays for
gastrointestinal disease in dogs and cats, providing veterinarians with
results in less than three hours, enabling quicker, more comprehensive results
and ensuring faster treatment. Adding these assays to the 200+ assays in
Primer Design's existing portfolio demonstrates the Group's commitment to
being at the forefront of emerging diagnostics needs. The Group is currently
working on enhancing its route to market for the Primer Design portfolio,
through the development of an e-commerce platform and optimising its
distribution network for growth.

 

Regulatory / R&D update

The latest assay to be submitted to BSI for IVDR accreditation is the
Yourgene® QST*R Base test; the review is progressing well and the Group
expects to update the market in the coming months with the outcome of the
review.

 

Novacyt's global R&D teams have recently been strengthened to ensure the
Group has the skills and capabilities to execute its new product introductions
over the coming years. The Group has recently invested in R&D to support
an exciting pipeline of new products in development to enable its organic
growth plans.

 

Operational update

The proposed changes to the Company's operational footprint have now
concluded, with the Group completing its consultation process of the closure
of its Eastleigh site, and has begun the process of relocating the Primer
Design business to the Group's Manchester facility, utilising the Group's
existing capacity and creating a centre of operational excellence. The Group
has also successfully completed the process of transferring all manufacturing
facilities for the Company's Ranger® instrumentation and consumables from
Yourgene Health Canada's manufacturing site to the Company's Manchester
facility. The previously announced closure of the IT-IS site at Stokesley is
now concluding and 16 instrumentation product lines have been discontinued as
part of this consolidation and rationalisation. The Group remains on track to
deliver the £3m of previously announced annual EBITDA improvements through
the various site consolidation activities, once they have all concluded, in
addition to the £5m of acquisition synergy cost savings from the Yourgene
Health acquisition.

 

Final results

The Group expects to report its full year results for the year ended 31
December 2024 during April 2025.

 

Commenting on the trading update Lyn Rees, CEO of Novacyt, said: "Whilst we
have been highly focused on cost reduction, consolidation and product and
services rationalisation during the year, I have also been very pleased to see
the progress made across the Group, particularly the growth achieved in our
Reproductive Health business. Despite a cautious instrumentation purchasing
environment during the year, we have also seen healthy growth in our Ranger
consumables sales, underlining the strength and utility of our Ranger
Technology, and we hope to see the market for new capital purchases improving
during FY2025. We now have a firm foundation, including a strong revenue base
on which we can build, and we look forward to setting out our comprehensive
growth strategy later this year."

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
Regulation (EU) 596/2014.

 

Contacts

 

 Novacyt SA                                                              https://novacyt.com/investors (https://novacyt.com/investors/)
 Lyn Rees, Chief Executive Officer                                        Via Walbrook PR
 Steve Gibson, Chief Financial Officer

 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nominated Adviser and Broker)                                                    +44 (0)20 3470 0470
 Matthew Johnson / Charlie Bouverat (Corporate Finance)

 Vadim Alexandre / Rob Rees (Corporate Broking)

 Deutsche Numis (Joint Broker)                                                                                    +44 (0)20 7260 1000
 Freddie Barnfield / Duncan Monteith / Michael Palser

 Allegra Finance (French Listing Sponsor)       +33 (1) 42 22 10 10

                                             r.durgetto@allegrafinance.com (mailto:r.durgetto@allegrafinance.com) /
 Rémi Durgetto / Yannick Petit                 y.petit@allegrafinance.com (mailto:y.petit@allegrafinance.com)

 Walbrook PR (Financial PR & IR)                                         +44 (0)20 7933 8780 or novacyt@walbrookpr.com (mailto:novacyt@walbrookpr.com)

 Paul McManus / Lianne Applegarth                                        +44 (0)7980 541 893 / +44 (0)7584 391 303

 Phillip Marriage / Alice Woodings                                        +44 (0)7867 984 082 / +44 (0)7407 804 654

 

About Novacyt Group (www.novacyt.com)

Novacyt is an international molecular diagnostics company providing a broad
portfolio of integrated technologies and services, primarily focused on the
delivery of genomic medicine. The Company develops, manufactures, and
commercialises a range of molecular assays and instrumentation to deliver
workflows and services that enable seamless end-to-end solutions from sample
to result across multiple sectors including human health, animal health and
environmental.

 

The Company is divided into three business segments:

 

 Clinical             Broad portfolio of human clinical in vitro diagnostic products, workflows and
                      services focused on three therapeutic areas:

                      ·    Reproductive Health: NIPT, Cystic Fibrosis and other rapid aneuploidy
                      tests

                      ·    Precision Medicine: DPYD genotyping assay

                      ·    Infectious Diseases: Winterplex, multiplex winter respiratory PCR
                      panel

 Instrumentation      Portfolio of next generation size selection DNA sample preparation platforms
                      and rapid PCR machines, including:

                      ·    Ranger® Technology: automated DNA sample preparation and target
                      enrichment technology

                      ·    genesig q16 and q32 real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) instruments

 Research Use Only    Range of services for the life sciences industry:

                      ·    Design, manufacture, and supply of high-performance qPCR assays and
                      workflows for use in human health, agriculture, veterinary and environmental,
                      to support global health organisations and the research industry

                      ·    Pharmaceutical research services: whole genome sequencing (WGS) /
                      whole exome sequencing (WES)

 

Novacyt is headquartered in Le Vésinet in France with offices in the UK (in
Eastleigh and Manchester), Singapore, the US and Canada and has a commercial
presence in over 65 countries. The Company is listed on the London Stock
Exchange's AIM market ("NCYT") and on the Paris Stock Exchange Euronext Growth
("ALNOV").

 

For more information, please refer to the website: www.novacyt.com

 

 

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