For all of you Star Wars fans out there, May the Fourth be with you today as we bring you the latest business and financial news in this week’s final edition of 3D Printing News Briefs. California laser company Coherent has acquired OR Laser in Germany, and regenerative medicine company CollPlant has completed the final closing of an investment agreement. Several major players in the 3D printing world – Materialise, Prodways, Stratasys, and 3D Systems – have released their financial results for the first quarter of 2018, while PyroGenesis has released the results from FY2017. Finally, the 3DCompare service has just launched its new Materials site.
Coherent Acquires German OR Laser
Coherent, a laser company headquartered in California, has had some uncertainty as of late in its key application area of organic LED (OLED) display production. But despite this hiccup, and falling stock prices, it’s reported a 14% year-on-year rise in revenues for the latest financial quarter. There’s been increased demand in several end markets for high-power fiber lasers in metal cutting applications, and the company, according to CEO John Ambroseo, has seen “tremendous growth” in metal 3D printing. That’s why Coherent made the recent decision to enter the metal 3D printing market with its acquisition of German company O.R. Lasertechnologie (OR Laser), well-known for its flexible ORLAS CREATOR metal 3D printer.
Ambroseo said about the company’s acquisition, “Industry data shows that metal AM machine unit sales grew 80 per cent in 2017 versus 2016.
“Many of the existing tool providers in metal AM are providing process development services and encoding the parameters into their tools. While this may ensure reproducibility and quality, it creates a log-jam for innovation.”
CollPlant Completes Investment Agreement
Regenerative medicine company CollPlant, which uses its proprietary plant-based rhCollagen technology for tissue repair products, just announced that it has completed the third and final closing of its investment agreement with Alpha Capital Anstalt, and issued the company a pre-paid warrant to purchase up to 9,921,482 ordinary shares, represented by 198,430 American Depositary Shares (ADSs), as well as a warrant to purchase up to 49,607,407 ordinary shares represented by 992,149 ADSs. The exercise price NIS 36.14 per ADS ($10.07 per ADS), with gross proceeds equaling $1 million, and both warrants were offered up in a private placement.
“With this last phase of investment, we are concluding a series of rounds of financing over the past seven months in CollPlant totaling approximately $8 million. These rounds were participated in by Alpha and our largest shareholders,” said Yehiel Tal, CollPlant’s CFO. “The main use of proceeds of these funds were for the establishment of a new cGMP production facility in Israel, the investment in the development projects that we have with 3D bio-printing of tissues and organs, R&D, sales and marketing and working capital and general corporate purposes.”
Materialise Reports Increasing Revenues
“In the year’s opening quarter, we focused as planned on advancing the many initiatives and collaborations we have implemented in recent years to position Materialise at the heart of the additive manufacturing ecosystem,” said Materialise Executive Chairman Peter Leys. “Our efforts showed particular success in Materialise Medical, where we realized revenue growth of 20% and achieved a record EBITDA margin of 17%. Our recently acquired ACTech business also turned in an excellent performance and is strengthening our multi-faceted business model. We believe we are on track to meet our financial guidance for 2018.”
Prodways Releases Q1 2018 Results
According to the company, “With the full-year consolidation of the acquisitions made in the second half of 2017 and the organic growth of business activities, Prodways Group is restating its ambition to exceed revenue of €50 million in 2018, representing growth of more than 43%. Considering the good figures of the first quarter, Prodways Group will specify its target on the occasion of half-year revenue publication. New acquisitions could reinforce this growth momentum. Prodways Group is reviewing transactions for both divisions and has the financial resources to match its ambitions.”
Stratasys Q1 2018 Revenues Down From 2017
“We are disappointed with our revenue for the first quarter, which is primarily attributed to underperformance in North America related to high end system orders, specifically from customers in government and other key verticals such as aerospace and automotive. We do not believe that our first quarter revenue represents a fundamental change in the demand environment in the North American market,” said Stratasys CEO Ilan Levin. “We continue to maintain a strong pipeline of opportunities, and are not modifying the full year guidance we issued earlier this year. Despite our revenue results in the period we continued our positive trend of operational discipline and cash generation. We remain committed to our investments in long-term initiatives that include advancements in our core FDM and PolyJet technologies, new metal additive manufacturing platform, advanced composite materials, and software and application development.”
3D Systems Reporting Increased Revenue and GAAP Loss
Q1 2018 results were also released for 3D Systems, which reported a GAAP loss of $0.19 per share compared to a loss of $0.09 per share during the same period last year, along with a non-GAAP loss of $0.03 per share compared to non-GAAP earnings of $0.06 per share in Q1 2017. But the company has also reported a revenue growth of 6% since last year – up to $165.9 million from $156.4 million. In addition, 3D Systems has a 24% higher 3D printer revenue on 44% higher unit sales, and is also reporting growth in its healthcare, software, and on-demand manufacturing solutions.
“We are pleased with our revenue in the first quarter, which was driven by printers, healthcare and software. While we still have work to do, we believe our investments in go-to-market, process improvements and better execution worldwide are starting to show returns,” said 3D Systems CEO Vyomesh Joshi (VJ). “We remain excited about the new products we plan to bring to market throughout the year and the incremental opportunity we believe they will provide for long term growth.”
PyroGenesis Releases Financial Results for 2017
“2017 was a year in which all key indicators of operational performance posted significant gains, year over year, and once again the Company is well positioned for the coming year. 2016 was a pivotal year for PyroGenesis as the Company decided to re-enter the market for metal powder production (this time for additive manufacturing), and leverage off of both its extensive Plasma expertise and the fact that it invented Plasma Atomization for this space,” explained P. Peter Pascali, the President and CEO of PyroGenesis. “2017… saw the commercial acceptance of its patented DROSRITE System with the acceptance of its first commercial sale and a subsequent re-order by the same client. As reviewed in a press release dated February 1st, 2018, we now have visibility on an additional 6-10 DROSRITE systems to be delivered in 2018 and there is a high probability that the Company will be profitable in 2018 from the addition of DROSRITE system sales to our backlog. All this to say that 2017 seems to have set the stage for a profitable 2018.”
3DCompare Launches Materials Site
“3DCompare.com has built a comparison site which allows people to compare specifications and prices, buy the right 3D printing materials at the best cost. At launch we have partnered up with resellers such as 3DJake, TechnologyOutlet and material brands including Colorfabb, Filoalfa, 3DSystems and Formlabs,” said 3DCompare CEO Alex Ziff. “The site allows customers to identify materials that they are interested in. This will enable customers to find relevant information and compare them with alternative materials. Direct links are then provided to the reseller’s site, guiding the customer to the point of purchase.”
Discuss these stories, and other 3D printing topics, at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.