No I did not fly to Shenzhen, although I would love to be there. From the news, and the presentation, the developments are very encouraging. Too bad my account ran out of money yesterday, otherwise I was going to add my MR positions amid the across board sale of Chinese stocks.
Some highlights (I think) worth noting:
1) Change of products division names
In other words, this means broadening/expansion of products. Change Patient Monitoring Devices to Patient Monitoring & Life Support Devices; Diagnostic Laboratory Instruments to In-Vitro Diagnostic Business; Ultrasound Imaging Systems to Diagnostic Imaging Systems.
2) Revenue growth:
CEO Mr. Xu Huang stated that it is the company’s goal to grow overall revenue by at least 40% in 2008 with domestic sales growing 30% and international sales growing 50%.
3) Profitability:
Gross margin in the 55%-56% range for year 2007 and 2008.
4) R&D:
Ms. Joyce Hsu, Mindray’s chief financial officer, provided financial highlights and reiterated the company’s commitment to investing approximately 10% of revenues in R&D.
Mr. Weng Lee, Mindray’s vice president of US-based research and development, commented on Mindray’s 2008 new product pipeline. Mr. Weng noted that the company plans to launch 10 new products, including an iPM patient monitoring device, two in-vitro diagnostic laboratory instruments, two black and white and three color ultrasound imaging and two digital radiology imaging systems. In addition, 23 reagents will be introduced to complement the company’s to-be-launched in-vitro diagnostic devices.
5) International sales:
Mr. Jie Liu, Mindray’s executive vice president of international sales & marketing, highlighted Mindray’s commitment to international expansion. The company recently opened offices in Canada, Brazil, Mexico and the Netherlands and plans to open an office in Russia by the end of 2007. The company has further plans for offices in Germany, France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan and South Africa. Liu noted that the company will gradually move toward a hybrid sales structure which allocates a greater amount of internal resources towards after-sales and service networks. Mr. Liu said he expects internal after- sales and service networks to help the company further understand end-user requirements and help increase international brand awareness.
By the way, I love those once-a-while sale of ALL Chinese stocks traded in the US. Next time I will prepare some bullets (money 🙂