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Article Excerpt
Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE
OPERATOR: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Atrium Biotechnologies first quarter results conference call. At this time, all participants in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be provided at that time for to you queue up for questions. (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS). I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded on Wednesday, May 9th, 2007, at 2:30 eastern time. I will now turn the conference over to John Dempsey, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.
JOHN DEMPSEY, VP - FINANCE, CFO, ATRIUM BIOTECHNOLOGIES INC: Thank you very much. Good afternoon to all and thank you for joining us. Just a few words for our french-speaking listeners (spoken in French). The purpose of the call today is to review Atrium Innovations 2007 first quarter financial highlights and results as well to provide details concerning our name change. Luc Dupont, President and CEO, as well as myself, John Dempsey, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer; Richard Bordeleau, President of the Health of Nutrition Division, and Charles Boulanger, President of the Active Ingredients and Specialty Chemical Division of the company will be providing their perspective on the quarter. Today's call is also available on our website at www.Atrium-Bio.com, and a replay will be available through June 9th. I would like to remind you that this is an analyst conference call, also available to the media and shareholders.
The following discussions and responses to questions on these discussions contain forward-looking statements concerning the company's activities. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned not to rely on the forward-looking statements. The company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements. In compliance with Canadian Securities Laws, the company has adopted a policy whereby it will not discuss future projects or events, unless the Company has a precise event to announce, which will then be done by way of a press release.
I will now turn the call over to Luc Dupont, President and CEO of Atrium.
LUC DUPONT, PRESIDENT AND CEO, ATRIUM BIOTECHNOLOGIES INC: Thank you, John. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. The purpose of the call is (inaudible - heavy accent) John will review Atrium's financial result for the first quarter of 2007, followed by comments on the progress we have made during the quarter, by Charles and Richard, I will then provide comments on the name change and our new Board member. At the end of this presentation, we will be available to answer questions.
Last year, we said that we will focus on organic growth to show that we could not only realize accretive acquisitions but also integrate them efficiently. The first quarter results clearly demonstrate our ability to do so. For this quarter, our revenue, organic growth was 15.2%, and our EBITDA organic growth was 21.5%. Overall, on the financial side in the first quarter of 2007, our sales were up 25% to $95 million. Our EBITDA was up 32%, to $15 million. And our net turning were up 25% to $8.6 million. and our free cash flow increased 21% to $9.7 million U.S.
We are very satisfied with these results and integration of AquaCap, Douglas Laboratories Canada, and Amisol. We can now envision a number of strategic acquisitions in the United States and Europe to establish ourself or strengthen our leadership positions. We believe that with our track record, Atrium is a very compelling growth stock. Atrium operates in the fast-growing market of health and wellness and our team of skilled professionals has proven its ability to generate organic growth and integrate accretive acquisitions. In order to accelerate our acquisition plan, we have added four people to our businesses development and M&A team in the first quarter. I will now turn the meeting over to John, who will provide you with more details and financial information.
JOHN DEMPSEY: Thank you very much, Luc. Please note that all figures are expressed in U.S. dollars unless specified otherwise, and that our financial statements were in accordance Canadian Joint Accepted Accounting Principle. Furthermore, the following discussions should take into account our first quarter 2007 MD&A, interim financial statements and press release of earlier today, as well as our annual reports which are available on our website at www.Atrium-Bio.com.
Atrium's revenues for the first...
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