Chiron Corporation, which last year hit a rocky patch after the UK regulator suspended its licence for its flu vaccine [[06/10/04b]], has revised its previously released 2004 financial results [[28/01/05e]], because it recorded certain travel vaccine sales at the wrong time.
Specifically, the company says it has determined that certain sales of the travel vaccine recorded as revenues in the second quarter of 2004 should not have been recorded as revenue at that time, and that portions of those sales should have been recorded as revenues in the third and fourth quarters of 2004 and possibly in later quarters. The revisions and restatements were identified during the company’s ongoing year-end financial statement review.
Chiron has also said that it has identified three material weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting – one relating to the revenue recognition for certain travel vaccine sales, one relating to booking of entries to tax accounts, including computational errors, and one relating to the reporting of legal expense accruals.
As a result of the restatement, Chiron says that for the full-year 2004, earnings were lowered to $127 million, or $0.67 per share – a decrease of $0.03 per share from the previously reported results [[28/01/05e]]. Income from continuing operations of decreased $0.04 per share to $54 million, or $0.28 per share. Revenues for the period decreased by $2.5 million, but remained at $1.7 billion after rounding. The firm says it also identified an additional $5 million in expenses incurred in 2004 that were not included in the earlier results. For the fourth quarter, net loss was unchanged at $23 million, but revenues for the period were raised by $6 million, and an additional $6 million in expenses was also identified. Restatements for the second and third quarters will be made at a future date.
