ClearStream expects first-half results to beat expectations

Irish medical devices company ClearStream Technologies said it expects its first-half results to beat analysts’ estimates.

Shares in the Enniscorthy, Co Wexford-based company are up 58 per cent this year and over 37 per cent over the last 12 months.

At 11.40am the stock was 19 per cent higher at 31 pence on the AIM in London, giving it a market capitalisation of £8.98 million (€10.2m).

The company said in a statement this morning it expects interim results for the six months to the end of January 2009 to be “ahead of market expectations”.

ClearStream designs and manufactures stents and stent delivery systems, which are narrow wire tubes or catheters that allow surgeons position stents to expand to unblock clogged arteries in angioplasty and similar procedures.

ClearStream said its cash generation this year has been ahead of management's expectations with “a positive operating cashflow” over the period.

The company added it has developed and recently introduced a number of new specialist catheters and is beginning to see increasing demand for its new drug eluting and cobalt chromium stents.

Goodbody analyst Killian Murphy said the trading momentum from the second-half of 2008 has continued into the full-year 2009 with the company generating pre tax profits in the first and second quarters.

“This performance has been driven by the commercialisation of existing and newly launched product lines as well as a growing co-labelling franchise.”