21st Mar 2019 09:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - Medical diagnostics services firm Integrated Diagnostics Holdings PLC boosted its dividend Thursday after profit and revenue both grew strongly despite a "challenging" environment.
Shares in Integrated Diagnostics were 6.5% higher at USD4.50 on Thursday.
In 2018, pretax profit widened 28% to EGP717.4 million, or GBP31.5 million, from EGP558.4 million the year prior. This was after revenue rose 27% to EGP1.92 billion from EGP1.51 billion the year before.
"IDH closed 2018 having delivered on several strategic goals," Chief Executive Hend El-Sherbini said.
"We strengthened and grew our core pathology business; expanded regionally with our acquisition of Echo-Scan in Nigeria; diversified into the radiology market in Egypt with the launch of Al Borg Scan; and, most importantly, executed these growth strategies in a manner that yielded strong financial results and created value for our shareholders."
In December 2017, Integrated Diagnostics paid USD5.7 million to acquire Echo-Scan in a strategic alliance with Man Capital LLP.
"These achievements bolstered our group's ability to deliver sustained, double-digit growth with strong margins", El-Sherbini continued.
Integrated Diagnostics proposed a 17.6 US cents full year dividend, up 10% from 16 cents the year prior.
"Our ability to maintain our growth momentum is directly related to our strong brands, our scalable asset-light business model and our strong supplier relationships that have allowed us to deliver exceptional value even under the challenging operating environment that characterised the last three years," El-Sherbini added.
"We are heading into 2019 with the same clearly-defined and prudently-executed growth strategies that will continue to unlock significant growth potential for years to come", El-Sherbini concluded.
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