Cord Blood America, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CBAI), the umbilical cord blood stem cell preservation company (http://www.cordblood-america.com ) focused on bringing the life saving potential of stem cells, a biological insurance policy, to families nationwide and internationally, announced today that its 10Q filing with the U.S. SEC for the three and nine-month period ended September 30, 2009, confirmed its announcements throughout 2009 that it is significantly reducing debt.
Notes and loans payable were reduced from $6.8 million at December 31, 2008 to $929,438 at September 30, 2009. These are listed in detail on page 11, note four of the filing. "Our asset to liability ratio is improving dramatically, a significant benchmark for a healthy company," said Matthew Schissler, co-founder and CEO. "We are proud to have significantly strengthened our balance sheet in 2009. We are most pleased to report the large 2009 debt reduction in current liabilities, from $13.59 million to $5.58 million. We also note that our market cap is up approximately 600 percent since the end of 2008."
"Gross margins increased from 54.3 to 62.7 percent as we emphasized our higher margin cord blood storage business instead of our advertising division, which we are phasing out," said Mr. Schissler. "We expect an increase in this important trend in 2010." Cord Blood America also noted that expenses increased in the quarter, with construction of the Company's new laboratory in Las Vegas. A decrease in revenues is attributable to a de-emphasis on the advertising business coupled with difficult economic conditions. The decrease to $838,238 in the third quarter and $2.6 million for the first nine months of 2009 is compared to $927,359 and $3.3 million in the comparable periods in 2008.
"The year 2009 focused on cleaning up the balance sheet and our third quarter results continue to validate our progress. The year 2010 will be laser focused on leveraging opportunities with our new laboratory, with special emphasis on diversifying revenue streams. Organic growth in the core stem cell processing and storage business and accretive acquisitions will also be primary targets for increasing the top line in 2010," said Mr. Schissler.