IBA Business Update – First Quarter 2020

Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, 13 May 2020 - IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A., EURONEXT), the world’s leading provider of proton therapy solutions for the treatment of cancer, today announces its business update for the first quarter ending 31 March 2020.

Business operations in the first quarter remained solid with some inevitable delays in the installation of projects starting to emerge as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In spite of the ongoing crisis, all of IBA’s operating proton therapy centers continue to treat patients with the Services business remaining at normal levels. Other Accelerators also had a solid start to the year with three new sales to date. Dosimetry continued to perform strongly in the first quarter, although some disruption from COVID-19 is expected to impact the business going forward, mirroring the impact seen in the radiotherapy market.

IBA’s backlog remains very high at EUR 1.1 billion and new tenders continue to progress internationally with active discussions ongoing, albeit with some inevitable delays. IBA remains committed to executing new leads to drive order intake across all business lines.

The Company entered 2020 with a strong balance sheet and excellent cash position that has been maintained over the first quarter. This financial position is expected to remain comfortable in the medium term with a number of safeguarding measures implemented to conserve cash. As has been previously communicated, the Group is applying systemic cost control measures, whilst maintaining targeted R&D investment, in order to drive sustainable profitable growth. These ongoing measures provide IBA with significant flexibility to weather the uncertainty associated with the pandemic.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, IBA continues to proactively take steps to protect its employees and other stakeholders, while minimizing disruption to its business activities. The Company has implemented various measures in line with international recommendations to ensure that workspaces are safe, and this has meant that there has been no material disruption to production. The IT infrastructure of the business is such that employees have been able to work from home where feasibly possible, and this has not interfered with normal business operations.