BioLife Solutions Inc (BLFS)

[techisbest]

"Thanks, Mike. Our biopreservation media revenue for the first quarter of 2019 reached a record $5.8 million, representing a 51% increase over the last year's first quarter revenue of $3.8 million.

The increase in revenue was primarily the result of higher indirect sales of our CryoStor biopreservation media through our worldwide distribution network.

Gross margin for the first quarter of 2019 increased to 71.5% compared with 64.2% in the first quarter of last year. The increase in gross margin was primarily driven by volume-related reductions and cost of good sold and slightly higher product ASPs.

Operating expenses in Q1 totaled $3.6 million compared with $2.3 million in Q1 of 2018.

The increase in operating expenses is primarily the result of higher performance-based compensation expense, accounting and consulting expenses and $442,000 of onetime charges including $208,000 of costs related to our acquisition of Astero.

First quarter's operating profit was $491,000 compared to $140,000 in the first quarter of 2018.

For the first quarter of 2019, net income attributable to common shareholders was $427,000 or $0.02 per diluted share compared with a net loss of $103,000 or $0.01 per share in 2018.

Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was $1.4 million compared with $590,000 in the same period last year.

We ended the first quarter with $31.8 million in cash compared to $30.7 million at the end of 2018.

With respect to our outlook for 2019, we reaffirm the guidance we provided in March of this year, which includes the impact of acquiring Astero beginning on April 2.

We expect total revenue for 2019 will be between $27 million to $30 million, reflecting year-over-year growth of 37% to 52%.

We anticipate that the Astero automated thaw product line will contribute between $1 million and $2 million in revenue this year.

Over the next several years, we believe these products could add 5 to 10 percentage points to our annual organic revenue growth rate and compromise -- comprise up to 15% of total revenue in 2021.

Our blended gross margin for 2019 should range between 69% to 70%. Although, we expect a small reduction in our gross margin going forward as a result of the automated thaw product line. We believe that the impact will be approximately 100 basis points.

The automated thaw products currently have gross margins in the low 60s, but with increasing volume, we expect gross margins related to these products will climb into the mid-60s.

2019 expenses are expected to be in the range of $15.5 million to $16.5 million. Approximately half the increase over 2018 is related to the Astero transaction with the balance primarily related to increased headcount in the sales and marketing and quality areas of the company as well as higher performance-based compensation.

Although, the Astero purchase will reduce our operating margin somewhat this year, we expect to exit the year in Q4 with an operating margin of approximately 20%, which is slightly higher than our full year 2018 level of 18.6%.

In subsequent years, we anticipate a sustained trend of increasing operating margins with the automated thaw product line providing a positive contribution to our adjusted EBITDA within 12 to 18 months.

I would like to end my remarks with a summary of our share count. We currently have 18.8 million common shares issued and outstanding. Our non-affiliate warrants, which were effectively eliminated in 2018, totaled 195,000 and affiliate RSA's options and warrants brings our fully diluted share count to $26.3 million."


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