With continued revenue growth in its fiscal second quarter, GN Store Nord, parent of the GN ReSound Group of hearing technology brands, is powering through challenges including a costly case of fraud in a U.S. hearing aid subsidiary and contraction of business in its non-hearing-aid headset subsidiary.
The Denmark holding company reported overall growth of four percent, driven by eight percent organic growth in its GN ReSound Group hearing technologies unit, which includes ReSound, Beltone and Interton hearing aids as well as GN Otometrics, a supplier of audiology equipment. The company pointed to the successful launch of ReSound’s second-generation of Made-for-iPhone Linx2 hearing aids as a high point of the quarter, which saw revenue grow to DKK 2,035 million ($303 million USD).
Bit the shine on the report was diminished by news of a $22.35 million case of accounting fraud in its Beltone hearing aid subsidiary in the U.S. GN said the company has written off the loss and fired the Beltone’s VP of finance. That news, combined with a relatively poor performance in its GN Netcom headsets business, where revenue was two percent lower than in the previous year, helped push the company’s stock price down last week.