Sarine Technologies Ltd announcing its financial results for the second quarter, and half year ended 30 June 2018, reported an increase of profit of 28% and 27% respectively, for the Group.

While Q2 2018 group revenue of US$ 18.0 million was reported to be “stable” on a y-o-y basis; Sarine noted that on a sequential quarterly basis, this represented an increase of 8% over sales worth US$ 16.7 million in Q1 2018.

“This improvement was mainly due to substantially higher diamond manufacturing equipment sales, in particular the Galaxy® family systems,” Sarine explained.  As of June 30, 2018, Sarine’s installed base of Galaxy® family systems grew to 377. 

Group revenue for H1 2018, amounted to US$ 34.6 million. Sarine explained that over 42% of this was recurrent in nature.

“During this period, Sarine noted significant revenue growth of just under 25% from its polished diamond retail-related business (growth of 33% in Q2 2018 compared to same period y-o-y),” Sarine added.

Gross profit for both Q2 and H1 2018, in line with the stable revenue, remained relatively flat at US$ 12.2 million and US$ 23.6 million respectively. “With prudent management, total operating expenses declined and this led to higher profit from operations in both Q2 and H1 2018,” Sarine emphasised. “Due to the impact of a change in product mix on the profitability of the Group’s subsidiaries, as well as the write-downs of certain deferred and other tax assets in 2017, income tax expenses were lower.”

The Company was thus able to achieve a growth in net profit by 28% to US$ 4.1 million in Q2 2018. On a sequential quarterly basis, the increase stood at 33% compared to the net of profit of US$ 3.1 million achieved in Q1 2018. For H1 2018, net profit grew by 27% to touch US$ 7.2 million, compared to the same period of the previous year.

The Company reported that the Sarine Profile™ continued to expand in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region “with new and expanded programmes being initiated with existing and new retailers”.

“In order to provide retailers in Japan with easier access to Sarine Profile™ reports, a new service centre will be launched there to support the Group’s further expansion in Japan,” Sarine announced. “The Group is currently finalising preparations for its launch later this month.”

The Group is also “intensifying efforts” to increase its market presence in mainland China. “At the invitation of the Guangzhou Diamond Exchange, the Group opened its ninth Galaxy® service centre in Guangzhou in July 2018 to service the rough diamond trade and diamond manufacturers in China,” Sarine revealed. “To accelerate its penetration into the Chinese polished diamond retail market, the Group is creating awareness for sales programmes utilising Sarine Profile™ through various Chinese social media platforms, including WeChat, Baidu, Weibo, etc

Sarine has also opened two Sarine Technology Labs in H1 2018: the first in Israel in February 2018; and the second in Mumbai in May 2018.

“With the new lab in Mumbai, we can now provide, on a commercial scale, our AI-enabled 4Cs diamond reports directly to polished diamonds manufacturing in India,” commented Sarine’s CEO, David Block.

He added: “After K-Uno, a key high-end Japanese retailer, announced the adoption of our new reports in mid-April, other retail customers have also expressed interest and are learning about our automated, consistent and objective AI-based grading paradigm. Several chains in Asia are currently running trial analyses of our grading technologies with an aim to adopt our unique ground-breaking solution.”