Severely impacted by adverse currency effects, Agfa HealthCare's revenue decreased by 7.7 percent. On a currency comparable basis, the decrease is limited to 2.5 percent, completely attributable to the decline of the Imaging segment's traditional X-ray film business. In last year's third quarter, the traditional film business' revenue was exceptionally strong.
The Imaging segment's digital radiography business (consisting of Computed Radiography, Direct Radiography and the hardcopy bu siness) performed well, mainly due to the hardcopy and DR product ranges.
Excluding currency effects, the IT segment's revenue increased slightly, driven by the Imaging IT business, which started to pick up a fter the rather soft second quarter of the year.
Agfa HealthCare's gross profit margin amounted to 33.6 percent of revenue, versus 35.0 percent in the third quarter of 2012. Profitability was impacted by currency and mix effects. Furthermore, the business group continued to invest in the further improvement of service efficiency. These elements were partially compensated by the business group's targeted actions. Recurring EBITDA reached 20.9 million Euro (or 7.6 percent of revenue) and recurring EBIT amounted to 13.9 million Euro (or 4.3 percent of revenue).
In August, Agfa HealthCare received an award from SERVICE 800's Customer Satisfaction Executive Conference for a consistent commitment to quality customer service proven by regular performance at or above industry benchmark over a ten-year period. SERVICE 800 specializes in measuring service quality and customer satisfaction immediately after service experiences.
In the field of digital radiography, Agfa HealthCare won a tender by the Ministry of Health in Kazakhstan to digitize mammography services in the nation's public hospitals. Under the contract, 63 CR 30-Xm computed radiography (CR) systems will be installed in hospitals around the country. In the UK, Agfa HealthCare successfully installed multiple CR systems at the hospitals of the East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. Furthermore, Agfa HealthCare started the delivery of DR systems to the US Navy as part of a five-year contract signed in the first quarter.
In Imaging IT, Agfa HealthCare successfully implemented its latest IMPAX Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) and Radio logy Information System (RIS) at Isala Clinics, the largest non-university hospital in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the first Imaging Clinical Information System (ICIS) solution in the Netherlands was installed at the Radboud hospital in Nijmegen. ICIS allows clinicians to capture, store, exchange and access imaging information securely and independent of location, on a variety of web-enabled devices. In Belgium, Agfa HealthCare recently signed IMPAX contracts or contract extensions with several leading hospitals.
In the USA, Southern Regional Medical Center (Riverdale, Georgia) became the first hospital in North America to install Agfa HealthCare's next generation Cardiovascular Information System, IMPAX CV12. Also in the third quarter, Agfa HealthCare started the roll-out of its new IMPAX Agility imaging platform at multiple hospitals in the USA and Latin America.
In the field of Enterprise IT, Agfa HealthCare's solutions continued their success in the German speaking region of Europe. The DRK hospital group Thüringen-Brandenburg (Germany) contracted Agfa HealthCare to install the ORBIS Hospital Information System in three of its sites. Among the other new ORBIS customers are the Sächsisches Krankenhaus Altscherbitz in Schkeuditz (Germany), the private hospital Meiringen (Switzerland) and the rehabilitation clinic Hasliberg (Switzerland). The university hospital Halle (Saale) (Germany) will install Agfa HealthCare's HYDMedia electronic archiving solution. In the CHU Toulouse hospital group (France), over 8,000 staff members are currently using ORBIS. The group recently confirmed its decision to roll-out additional Medication and Biology processes through out the entire organization.
- 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.