Le potentiel d'Ion Beam Applications est encore énorme et les objectifs des analystes devront être revus régulièrement à la hausse. Ci dessous, un article intéressant de Bloomberg du 22 janvier 2015 sur la société.
Cordialement,
dA
(Bloomberg) -- Ion Beam Applications SA is “very positive” for proton-therapy projects this year, with more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) of potential deals under tender, Chief Executive Officer Olivier Legrain said.
Ion Beam, the world’s biggest maker of cancer-treatment centers using proton therapy, is pursuing more than 50 project tenders around the world for such installations, which treat cancer tumors by using high-energy particle beams. It had 177.4 million euros of confirmed orders in its backlog at the end of September.
“We believe 2015 has a potential to be a harvesting year for us where we expect a lot of decisions and a lot of projects to move forward,” Legrain said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. “So definitely we are very positive about 2015.”
The company, which boasts more than half of the world’s proton-therapy clinical facilities, is bidding for projects in countries including the U.K., the Netherlands, Norway, India and its home country. It competes in the proton-therapy field with companies including Varian Medical Systems Inc. in the U.S. and Japan’s Hitachi Ltd.
Ion Beam, which also builds particle accelerators for medical and industrial applications and dosimetry equipment, estimates its 2014 revenue totaled at least 223 million euros, forecasting growth of 5 percent to 10 percent from the prior year. The shares have risen 81 percent in the past 12 months as the company has signed deals including one with Guangdong Hengju Medical Technologies Co. to jointly install a proton system in China.
Updated Guidance
“We are definitely on our target in 2014,” Legrain said. “We have been successful in a number of deals.” Ion Beam will issue its full-year results and give updated guidance on March 26.
Among the deals Ion Beam is bidding on are two projects in Belgium, one for a partnership between the University of Louvain-La-Neuve and the University of Leuven, and the other a research project in the country’s Walloon region, Legrain said. In the Netherlands, the company is involved in “a number of tenders,” he said.
In Britain, Ion Beam is targeting two projects, one in Manchester and the other in London. The company expects the outcome of both tenders in the first half, Legrain said. The U.K. government has set aside 250 million pounds ($379 million) to build the two centers.
‘Quality Pipeline’
“We have never seen such a quality pipeline” of potential projects, Chief Financial Officer Jean-Marc Bothy said in the same interview.
The company has 18 installed facilities treating patients, of which 10 are in the U.S., and another 11 centers under construction.
Ion Beam recently lost a tender to Varian Medical to supply proton-therapy equipment for the Danish National Center for particle radiotherapy, according to Jan De Kerpel, an analyst at KBC Securities. “With 50 percent market share in proton therapy, it is normal to lose one out of two projects” so KBC is “not concerned about the long-term potential of IBA’s potential to maintain its market leadership,” De Kerpel, who recommends investors add to their holdings, said last week in a client note.
Proton therapy produces a particle beam that is targeted within a precisely controlled area at the center of a tumor without damaging surrounding healthy tissue. It is particularly appropriate for the treatment of eye and brain cancers, tumors close to the brain stem and spinal cord, and prostate, liver, breast and paediatric cancers, according to Ion Beam.
Cancer Patients
Just 1 percent of cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy are treated with proton therapy, while the consensus developing is that 20 percent of the patients could benefit from proton therapy, according to Legrain. “One percent to 20 percent, that is our vision. It’s a tremendous growth potential for us,” he said.
Given the high cost of the machines, there is debate among doctors over whether the treatment should be widely used, or limited to a few, rare forms of cancer such as those in the brain or spine for which there is better evidence of its effectiveness.
At the heart of a treatment center is a cyclotron, the machines built by Ion Beam in Louvain-la-Neuve that produce the proton beam. A facility using a cyclotron with multiple treatment rooms can typically be the size of a soccer field. The company has also developed a more compact version of the cyclotron, called Proteus One, which can be built into centers about the size of a tennis court, broadening the potential market by making the technology accessible to smaller hospitals.
Therapy Equipment
Ion Beam has teamed up with Royal Philips NV of the Netherlands for the sales, marketing and development of imaging and therapy equipment. This partnership has begun to bear fruit with formal agreements about to be signed in a number of regions including India, the U.S., Canada and Brazil, as well as Germany, according to Legrain.
The partnership with Philips “is progressing well,” Legrain said. “The Philips relationship will help us to accelerate the penetration of proton therapy in different regions of the world.”
Legrain and Bothy reiterated the company’s intention in the coming years to resume a dividend payout. Such a dividend would be “something like a third” of earnings, according to Bothy.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Clapham in Brussels at aclapham@bloomberg.net
