21st May 2020

EKF shares climb after positive update

Shares climbed by more than 10 per cent at EKF Diagnostic Holdings after the business revealed it looked set to outstrip expectations.

The point-of-care business announced a further increase in expected orders for the PrimeStore MTM sample collection devices which is being used in the fight against Covid-19.

EKF contract manufactures the collection kits on behalf of Longhorn Vaccines and Diagnostics and said at the end of last week that it has received further multimillion-pound orders.

The additional contribution now indicated for June under the Longhorn manufacturing contract means that the company expects to further exceed the overall management budgets for the first half of 2020 more confidently than it forecast in April.

Group revenues for the six months are now expected to be at least £25m alongside adjusted EBITDA of at least £7.5m, a 34 per cent increase on the same period last year.

EKF is substantially increasing its manufacturing capacity to meet the demand for the Primestore MTM Device.

The company’s facility in Wales is now operational and shipped its first product this week and EKF has begun the process to start manufacturing in Germany. The company also expects to expand capacity in the US in the very near future due to an acceleration in its capital expenditure programme.

EKF said that as the pandemic is still gaining momentum in most areas of the US and testing is being emphasised by the authorities, the company’s board expects “the second half of the year will see continued momentum and the full year results will exceed, perhaps considerably, its recently upgraded expectations”.

Shares climbed by as much as 13 per cent in response to the news.