GeneReach Biotechnology Corp (瑞基海洋), which makes disease detection devices and reagents for pets, livestock and the aquaculture industry, said yesterday that it aims to report a 56 percent revenue increase this year as many of its products completed their certification processes.
The company set a target to report revenue of NT$150 million (US$5 million) this year, up from NT$95.85 million the previous year, the company said.
GeneReach currently has 40 reagents with multiple certificates and the company aims to increase the number by 50 this year and by another 50 or 60 next year, GeneReach chairman Leo Liu (劉正忠) told reporters yesterday.
Photo: CNA
The company also expects GeneRadar Biotechnology Corp (金瑞鴻捷), a joint venture it formed with China-based Xiamen Kingdomway Investment Co (廈門金達威投資公司) in August last year, to generate sales of millions of Chinese yuan this year and help the company to sell its products in China.
GeneReach’s expected revenue growth this year would end the company’s sequential revenue declines in the past two years, it said.
“It normally takes two to three years for a new product to receive enough certificates around the world for our customers to significantly increase their purchases of the product,” Liu said.
From January through last month, the company posted a 20.2 percent revenue increase to NT$60.04 million, up from NT$49.95 million a year ago, according to the company’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Sales of reagents accounted for 71 percent of the company’s revenue last year, while sales of detection devices accounted for 22 percent, it said.
Sales in Asia account for about 57 percent of the company’s revenue, while sales in the US account for 30 percent and sales in the Middle East 8 percent, GeneReach said.
In the first quarter, the company registered losses of NT$13.46 million, or NT$0.44 per share, down from losses of NT$16.82 million, or NT$0.56 a year earlier, according to a filing.
Liu said the company reported losses starting in 2012, when it built a new factory.
Depreciation costs of NT$7 million a year for the factory and research and development costs of NT$30 million to NT$40 million a year were the main reasons for the losses, Liu added.
The company will break even in the second half of this year because of the revenue increase, the firm said, adding that it will strive to push revenue to NT$160 million next year to allow the company to break even.
The company plans to shift its listing to the GRETAI Securities Market in mid-August from the smaller Emerging Stock Market, issuing 4.04 million shares at less than NT$43.
Liu said the company will use the money it raises to replenish its working capital.
As major global disease detection service providers focus more on offering reports based on laboratory results, GeneReach aims to provide devices and reagents for its clients to do the tests onsite, Liu said.
GeneReach accounted for 70 percent of the global market for reagents to test white spot syndrome in shrimps, Liu said, adding that among 50 pet hospitals in Singapore, about 10 purchased the firm’s kits for disease detection.
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