Evotec OAI Reports Good Start to 2003

German company Evotec OAI has made a good start to the year with revenues for the first quarter of 2003 up 5% on 2002 at €17.8m. This is despite unfavourable currency effects from dollar and sterling sales; at constant exchange rates, revenues would have been 15% up at €1.7m. Furthermore, first quarter sales last year were also particularly strong and included €2.3m for extraordinary revenues deferred from the last quarter of 2001.

The operating loss decreased by 17% to €5.8m, mainly as a consequence of reduced r&d spending on non-core and savings resulting from a stringent cost management programme. Excluding amortisation charges, loss from operations improved to e3.0m.

The company says its order book continues to be healthy and as of April amounted to €61m for 2003. 'On the basis of a promising pipeline of new orders, we are confident of achieving our growth target of 10-15% for the year, even assuming that the outsourcing market environment remains challenging for the rest of the year,' a spokesman said.