This morning I “attended” the Annual General Meeting of EKF Diagnostics (EKF). This was a “hybrid” meeting with the physical meeting in Cardiff and the on-line aspect run on Zoom which I logged into. It was reasonably well attended both ways with a number of questions posed. The meeting ran for about one hour.
The company benefited greatly from the Covid epidemic when revenue peaked at £82 million in 2021, but it reported losses in 2022 as the epidemic declined and the market changed. Profits are forecast in 2023 however.
I did not learn much from the meeting except they are apparently still looking for a new CEO (they currently have an executive chairman which I generally dislike). As usual with medical companies they have difficulty in selling to the NHS who want to do everything centrally (different to the rest of the world) but they are still selling in Russia and don’t plan to withdraw from that market – profits generated there cannot be repatriated but by increasing their product prices they can obtain a return.
The meeting was difficult to follow because the internet link at the company’s end kept breaking. If companies are going to run hybrid AGMs they need to use reliable technology such as by using the Investor Meet Company platform.
Otherwise the meeting was well run.
I asked one question as to why they had a share buy-back resolution on the agenda which I voted against. Apparently they have no current intention of using it.
The company clearly has ambitions to grow its revenue and profits and the share price does not seem expensive to me on prospective earnings and dividend yield, but readers can no doubt make up their own mind on that.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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