(Yicai Global) Oct. 21 -- MGI Technology, a leading Chinese supplier of gene sequencing equipment, reported a more than four-fold jump in profit for the first three quarters of the year, mainly because it received USD325 million from Illumina to settle a patent infringement lawsuit.

Net profit was CNY2 billion (USD280 million) in the nine months ended Sept. 30, up 340 percent from a year earlier, the unit of life sciences giant BGI Group said in its latest trading report released on Oct. 19. Revenue rose 16 percent to CNY3.3 billion.

US rival Illumina agreed in July to pay USD325 million to Shenzhen-based MGI to end litigation over patent infringement of its gene-sequencing technologies. Under the terms of the agreement, the pair were to drop any challenges to US court judgments in Delaware and California, and Illumina was to obtain licensing in the US for a two-channel sequencing technology from MGI and its Complete Genomics unit.

Profit after deducting non-recurring items, including the settlement, fell 25 percent to CNY387 million (USD53.4 million), mainly because expanded operations and a 15 percent jump in research and development spending to CNY525 million drove up expenses, MGI said. Changes in its product structure also weighed on gross profit.

Shares of MGI [SHA: 688114] closed 1.9 percent higher today at CNY122.51 (USD16.91) a share, after climbing by as much as 3.7 percent earlier in the day and dropping 8.5 percent yesterday.

Editor: Futura Costaglione