IXICO PLC (AIM:IXI, OTC:PHYOF) reported a 34% increase in underlying annual profits and said its analytical offering will be enhanced further during the next 12 months as a new algorithm platform is launched.
Alongside this, the AI neuroimaging company said the launch of its next-generation cloud-based data capture and analysis platform remains on track for the second half of the new financial year.
For the year to 30 September 2021, the AIM-listed company revealed underlying earnings (EBITDA) of £1.7mln compared to £1.3mln the year before. The statutory profit before tax was £1.16mln, up from £0.86mln.
This reflected solid revenue performance in a challenging trading environment, careful management of discretionary costs and positive one-time impacts, it said.
Revenues of £9.2mln compared to £9.5mln before, following a full year of COVID-19 and revenue being adversely impacted by largest client's decision to descope its Huntington's disease (HD) Phase III trials.
The year closed with cash of £6.7mln, incorporating long-term technology investments of £2.2mln.
The contracted order book stood at £18.8mln, net of £7.1mln of the descoped HD trials, but with 16 new projects won across 14 clients, 9 of whom were new.
Chief executive Giulio Cerroni said: “In delivering strong revenues at continued high gross profit margins and a record level of EBITDA profitability, we have once again demonstrated the resilience and value generating potential of our business model.”
He said the US Food & Drug Administration's approval in June of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab “highlights the importance, and potential commercial value, of being able to objectively measure small changes in brain regions when developing drugs to address complex neurological conditions.
“IXICO is perfectly placed to support this requirement with our well established, proprietary imaging data analytics capabilities."
On the outlook for the coming year, the company highlighted the launch of its new algorithm platform and data capture and analysis platform, but said that the indefinite trial halt announced in October has created “short-term challenges that need careful management as we enhance our ability to generate long-term growth”.
“In the current year, we continue to carefully manage these challenges while pursuing our focussed investment programme to deliver scale, efficiency and service offering in a marketplace that continues to expand.
“We expect these investments, alongside a better mix of revenues from a more balanced order book of early phase trials, will lead to a contraction in the group's EBITDA in the coming year, but should provide the basis for accelerated, sustained and profitable growth in the medium and longer terms.”