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‘Illegal Competition’ Dents Profits at Sarine
Aug 10, 2017 4:07 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT... Sarine Technologies saw a drop in sales for
the second quarter, placing part of the blame on Indian businessmen whom the diamond-equipment
manufacturer is suing for alleged patent and copyright infringement.
Revenue for the quarter, which ended June
30, declined 13% year on year to $18.2 million, the Israel-based company reported this week.
Profit fell 47% to $3.2 million.
The first half, too, compared unfavorably
with the previous year’s figures, with revenue sliding 5% to $34.4 million and
profit dropping 37% to $5.7 million.
In particular, sales in India — Sarine’s
largest market — took a hit, falling 24% year on year to $12.7 million in the
second quarter, and 11% to $25.8 million in the first half. North America and
Israel showed declines as well, with second-quarter revenue decreasing 58% to
$258,000 in the former region and 20% to $937,000 in the latter.
The overall decline in revenue and profit “is
mainly due to lower equipment sales in India, as well as higher operating
expenses, in part due to the weaker US dollar,” the company commented. But it also
pointed a finger at India-based parties that had allegedly made illegal use of
the group’s patented diamond-mapping technology.
“Sales of inclusion-mapping systems for
smaller stones (primarily the Meteor [system]) were affected by patent and
copyright infringement activities of an illegal competitor in India, against which
the group has been taking aggressive legal and other actions,” Sarine said.
At the beginning of July, the company
announced it was suing several companies that “infringe on Sarine’s patented
technologies for internal inclusion mapping, and its copyrighted Advisor
software for rough-diamond planning, in order to illicitly provide equipment
and services to diamond manufacturers.” Later that month, two Indian nationals
were arrested in Tel Aviv in connection with the case.
“Although the illicit competition is likely
to prevail [into the third quarter], Sarine remains confident of maintaining
its solid market leadership position, as evident from the record number of
stones processed by its growing base of inclusion-mapping systems,” the company
said this week.
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Tags:
diamond mapping, India, Manufacturing, Rapaport News, Sarine, Sarine Technologies, technology
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