Precise Biometrics expects sales to biggest client to stop in 2017, to be replaced by others (updated)

Precise Biometrics AB

14/02/2017 07:51

(Adds details) 
    Feb 14 (Reuters) - Swedish software biometric company 
Precise Biometrics  PREC.ST  on Tuesday said it expected sales 
to its biggest client to stop completely during the latter part 
of the year and to be replaced by other clients as it forecast 
flat 2017 revenue.  
    * "Revenues from our biggest customer, Fingerprint Cards 
(FPC), continue to fall quarter on quarter in the mobile devices 
segment and is expected to cease completely during the second 
half of the year," CEO Hakan Persson said in a statement  
    * Says its other customers show solid growth and expects 
gradually increasing volumes starting from the second half of 
the year, which is why it expects net sales for the full year to 
be in line with net sales for 2016  
    * Q4 consolidated net sales increased to SEK 25.7 (23.5) 
million. 
    * Q4 operating profit before depreciation (EBITDA) totaled 
SEK 3.8 (6.7) million. 
    * Q4 cash flow from operations improved to SEK 11.8 (8.8) 
million  
    * Says anticipates a weaker revenue development during the 
first half of the year because of reduced revenues from FPC 
    * Says expects gradually increasing volumes starting from 
the second half of the year 
    * CEO says "I am confident that Precise Biometrics 
thereafter will continue to have a high growth considering our 
position in the market." 
    * Says market for mobile devices with fingerprint sensors, 
excluding Apple, doubled in 2016 from 300 to 600 million devices 
    * Says believes the mobile market will continue to develop 
rapidly and reach a total of almost 900 million devices in 2017 
    * Says about smart cards, wearables and IoT (Internet of 
Things) devices: "We are involved in a large number of 
well-advanced projects in which we are expecting modest initial 
volumes during the year" 
    * Says it is difficult to assess how quickly the market for 
new product areas will grow, but convinced that over time the 
market has the potential to be at least as large as the market 
for mobile devices 
    * Says during the quarter we intensified our collaboration 
with many of our customers in major integration projects at the 
premises of mobile phone manufacturers and expect this to be 
generating major volumes during the latter part of the year and 
continuing into 2018 
    * Fingerprint Cards in April 2016 said it would develop its 
own algorithm  ID:nL5N17A1NL  
 
Source text for Eikon:  ID:nWkr7zFgb7  
Further company coverage:  PREC.ST  
 
 (Reporting by Olof Swahnberg; Editing by Daniel Dickson) 
 ((Olof.Swahnberg@thomsonreuters.com;)) 
 
Keywords: PRECISE BIOMETRICS RESULTS/