Preliminary Lab Instrumentation Index: 2000 Ends on a High Note.

December 31 marked the end of the fiscal year for most of the companies in IBO's Laboratory Instrumentation Sales Index. As a result, not all of these companies have released their final fourth quarter and year-end figures yet. Due to the timing of the releases from the companies in the index, the Laboratory Instrumentation Sales Index in this month's issue is only preliminary. A final index that includes the sales information from the just completed quarter for all of the companies in the index will appear in the April 15 issue of IBO. Complete quarterly results will appear in the expanded February 28 issue of IBO.

As of February 15, nine of the twenty-one companies in the index have released their results for the quarter. Collectively, the revenues of these nine companies represent over half of 1999 fourth quarter sales of a year ago. The following companies are included in the preliminary Laboratory Instrument Sales Index. Applied Biosystems, Beckman Coulter, Bioanalytical Systems, Bio-Rad, Dionex, Packard BioScience, PerkinElmer, Varian and Waters.

Fourth quarter revenues for the reporting companies increased almost 17% over the same companies' revenues in the previous fourth quarter. Calendar year 2000 sales were up over 18% for those companies reporting before publication.

However, the results of these reporting companies is not an indicator of how the overall index is going to perform for the quarter and calendar year. Several large index components have not yet reported and could significantly affect the performance of the index. For example, both Agilent Technologies' Chemical Analysis Group and Thermo Electron have yet to report their financial results.

Of the nine reporting companies, the overall stable growth in both fourth quarter and calendar year revenues was attributed to the strength of products for life science applications. Varian reported strong growth in its near magnetic resonance, liquid chromatography, and molecular spectroscopy product offerings. Waters noted that its mass spectrometry segment showed the strongest growth for the quarter (see page 7).

Operating profit margins for the nine companies in the fourth quarter increased to above 16% of sales, growing slightly slower than sales did for the quarter. Operating profits for the fourth quarter of 2000 from the nine reporting companies increased nearly 21%, compared to the 1999 operating profit growth of 48%. Calendar year operating profits for the same nine companies increased almost 36% for 2000 over a 29% increase for the previous year.

Bioanalytical Systems reported first quarter sales ended December 31 of $5.4 million over 1999 first quarter sales of $4.4 million, for a 22.1% increase. Bioanalytical Systems reported that, compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2000, fiscal 2001 first quarter revenues generated from its service and product segments increased 12% and 39%, respectively. Its newest product line, Culex, has made a positive contribution to the product revenue growth in fiscal 2001. The Culex line of products is a family of fully automated blood sampling and metabolite collection devices for pharmaceutical researchers.

During the fourth quarter, Beckman Coulter reported three new product developments. It shipped its first ready-to-use iTAg MHC Tetramer reagents for HIV and melanoma T cell detection, introduced the Avanti J-20XP high-performance centrifuge to process large volume samples for biotechnology applications, and launched the SYNCHRON LX20 PRO chemistry analyzer with closed-tube sampling and high-sensitivity detection system.

Bio-Rad's fourth quarter revenues were negatively impacted by the sale of its Semiconductor Measurement Division to Accent Semiconductor Technologies in July 2000, and the sale of some distribution businesses to Beckman Coulter in September 2000. However, strong revenue growth was evident in the consumables and laboratory devices segments. In December 2000, Bio-Rad launched the Bio-Plex Protein Array System, a platform that supports the drug discovery process, providing researchers with more information at the cellular level. It also began shipping a test kit for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) also known as Mad Cow Diesease. Bio-Rad's portfolio includes tools for protein analysis, separation, and identification, along with molecular arrays and bioinformatics products.

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