Corin Swings To Fiscal Year Loss On Weak Cormet Sales
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Orthopedic device company Corin Group PLC (CRG.LN) Monday said it swung to a full-year loss following inventory write downs caused by weak U.S. sales of its Cormet hip resurfacing system.
Still, overall the company beat expectations, sending its shares up almost 10% , although analysts said it was too early to tell if a new strategy will be enough to cope with an expected slowdown in growth in the orthopedics market this year.
Corin said 2008 revenue advanced to GBP39.8 million from GBP37 million a year earlier, ahead of analysts’ consensus of GBP37.2 million. Sales outside the U.S. rose 21%, boosted by the weak pound and new products like the Metafix cement- less hip.
However, Corin reported a pretax loss of GBP3.9 million compared with a profit of GBP2.8 million in 2007. It said a GBP5.2 million write-down in the value of its inventories following disappointing Cormet sales weighed on earnings, as did a decision to phase out some products and the costs of a failed acquisition.