Mainly due to adverse currency effects, Agfa HealthCare's revenue decreased by 2.0 percent to 294 million Euro. Excluding currency effects, revenue remained almost stable. In the Imaging segment, the digital radiography business (consisting of Computed Radiography, Direct Radiography and the hardcopy business) performed strongly, mainly due to the success of the DR product range. The traditional X-ray product range's revenue dropped considerably compared to the second quarter of 2012. In last year's second quarter, the traditional business was marked by a strong recovery following slow sales in earlier months.
Excluding currency effects, the IT segment's revenue remained stable. The Enterprise IT business continued its upward trend, whereas the Imaging IT business was rather soft compared to the very strong second quarter in 2012. On a year-to-date basis, Imaging IT continued to grow according to plan. Due to the well-filled order book, sales for Imaging IT are expected to pick up towards the end of the year.
Agfa HealthCare's gross profit margin amounted to 34.7 percent of revenue, versus 36.3 percent in the second quarter of 2012. Margins were influenced by mix effects and by investments to further improve service efficiency and to prepare the introduction of new solutions. Recurring EBITDA reached 28.7 million Euro (or 9.8 percent of revenue). Recurring EBIT amounted to 18.9 million Euro (or 6.4 percent of revenue).
In May, Agfa HealthCare established a new subsidiary in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. By setting up the Agfa HealthCare Saudi Arabia Company Ltd., the business group will be able to enhance its support to its customers in this important region.
In the field of digital radiography, Agfa HealthCare launched its NX MUSICA2 Platinum and NX MUSICA2 Neonatal image processing solutions for use with direct radiography (DR) technology. The solutions render excellent bone and soft tissue detail simultaneously in a single exposure. NX MUSICA2 Platinum is suitable for both adults and pediatric patients. NX MUSICA2 Neonatal is designed to meet the demanding requirements of neonatal imaging.
The installed base for Agfa HealthCare's innovative DR solutions continued to grow in the second quarter. In the UK, for instance, Agfa HealthCare successfully implemented its DX-D 600 DR system at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust. In the USA, the business group installed six DX-D 100 mobile DR systems at the Department of Defense's Medical Education & Training Campus for use in the basic biomedical equipment technician training curriculum.
In Imaging IT, Agfa HealthCare released ICIS View 3.0, the medical images and results viewer for the comprehensive ICIS (Imaging Clinical Information System) enterprise imaging solution. The system allo ws clinicians, specialists and other stakeholders to access all patient imaging data from any Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), using a single viewer. The ICIS solution creates a true imaging record for every patient, containing all possible images of the patient, regardless of the hospital department and de facility that created them.
In May, Agfa HealthCare announced the signing of a new contract that makes the business group's full suite of imaging IT solutions available to the customers of Novation, a leading healthcare supply contracting company in the USA. Included in the contract are Agfa HealthCare's IMPAX departmental and ICIS enterprise imaging solutions.
Among the new customers for Agfa HealthCare's ORBIS Enterprise IT solution were the following hospitals in Northern Germany: the St. Marienhospital Ankum-Bersenbrück GmbH, the CKT Marienhospital Steinfurt GmbH and the STENUM Fachklinik für Orthopädie.
- Agfa HealthCare's Profile
About Agfa
The Agfa-Gevaert Group is one of the world's leading companies in imaging and information technology. Agfa develops manufactures and markets analogue and digital systems for the printing industry (Agfa Graphics), for the healthcare sector (Agfa HealthCare), and for specific industrial applications (Agfa Materials). Agfa is headquartered in Mortsel, Belgium. The company is present in 40 countries and has agents in another 100 countries around the globe. The Agfa-Gevaert Group achieved a turnover of 2,948 million euro in 2010.
About Agfa HealthCare
Agfa HealthCare, a member of the Agfa-Gevaert Group, is a leading global provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions. The company has nearly a century of healthcare experience and has been a pioneer on the healthcare IT market since the early 1990's. Today Agfa HealthCare designs, develops and delivers state-of-the-art systems for capturing, managing and processing diagnostic images and clinical/administrative information for hospitals and healthcare facilities, as well as contrast media solutions to enable effective medical imaging results. The company has sales offices and agents in over 100 markets worldwide. Sales for Agfa HealthCare in 2010 were 1,180 million euro.