INTERIM REPORT JANUARY - MARCH 2004
INTERIM REPORT JANUARY - MARCH 2004 · Biacore's sales in the first quarter of 2004 amounted to SEK 95.3 million (106.5), a decline by 11%. Excluding the impact of exchange rates, sales increased by 2%. Encouragingly, the Americas saw its second quarter of positive sales development, as early-stage drug discovery customers resumed instrument purchases. This positive trend was also seen in Europe. The reported sales decline was entirely due to a disruption in purchasing patterns caused by a reorganization and de- centralization of academic research in Japan. · Biacore's earnings per share in the first quarter of 2004 were SEK 0.27 (0.77), a decrease of 65% due to lower sales. · The Company is completing the development of its new SPR array technology with the first of the novel systems based on this technology due to be introduced in the latter part of this year. · The Board of Biacore has decided to take the steps necessary to de- list the Company's ADRs from Nasdaq National Market in the United States. A time plan for this process is now in place with the de-listing expected to take place on May 21, 2004. · The Board has decided to recommend to today's Annual General Meeting an unchanged dividend payment for the financial year 2003 of SEK 3.00 per share. · Biacore maintains its previous outlook for the full-year 2004: The current market and currency conditions make an accurate sales forecast for 2004 difficult. However, Biacore expects sales and earnings per share for the full-year 2004 to increase. As always, sales and earnings are likely to vary substantially between quarters. For further information, please contact: Dr Ulf Jönsson, President and CEO, Phone +41 (0)79 668 8336 Lars-Olov Forslund, CFO, Phone +41 (0)79 347 9900 Jan Isoz, Investor Relations, Phone +46 (0)708 10 31 17 Biacore International AB (publ) Company registration number: 556534-5211 Head office Biacore International SA, Puits-Godet 12, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland Phone +41 32 720 9000 info@biacore.com www.biacore.com (SSE: BCOR; Nasdaq: BCOR; Reuters: BCOR.N) ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/04/28/20040428BIT00480/wkr0001.doc The full report http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/04/28/20040428BIT00480/wkr0002.pdf The full report