Belgian cancer treatment company Ion Beam Applications (IBA) reported a loss of €10.3 million in the first half of the year, although the company's losses are reducing as it converts a backlog of orders into final sales.
Headquartered in Louvain-la-Neuve in Wallonia, IBA produces particle accelerator technology, and is a leading global supplier of equipment and services for proton therapy (an advanced form of radiation therapy for cancer). The Belgian firm employs around 2,000 people worldwide.
IBA saw revenues increase by 21.6% in the first half of the year, to €206.5 million. The company said that this was due to the accelerated conversion of backlog orders into sales, as well as increasing service revenues across all businesses.
The company said that despite the "strong acceleration of backlog conversion", it still has a backlog of €715 million for orders for equipment and upgrades, and an overall backlog for equipment and service orders of €1.4 billion.
While IBA's gross profit margin rose from 26.6% to 33.8% in the first half of the year, the company still made a net loss of €10.3 million.
However, the first half losses were significantly reduced compared to the same time last year, when IBA reported a loss of €27.3 million.
Olivier Legrain, CEO of IBA, said that the company has made "excellent progress" in working through its order backlog.
"Following the encouraging first half, our strong pipeline across all business units underpins our confidence for the remainder of the year and we expect a second half weighting of financial performance," he said.
He added that IBA remains "confident" about delivering on its mid-term projections – that its revenues should grow by an average of 15% each year between 2022 and 2026.
