7th Mar 2019 08:47
LONDON (Alliance News) - NMC Health PLC on Thursday said a strong performance in 2018 has reinforced the group's confidence in achieving its guidance for 2019.
Despite the robust update, shares in NMC Health were down 8.2% at 2,754.00 pence, the worst performer in the FTSE 100 index in early trading Thursday.
For the recent year, the United Arab Emirates-focused private hospital operator reported a 22% rise in pretax profit to USD256.9 million from USD210.4 million in 2017.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased by 38% to USD487.4 million from USD353.4 million the prior year, on revenue that grew 28% to USD2.06 billion from USD1.60 billion.
NMC Health's Ebitda was just above group expectations reiterated in December, which guided the figure at USD480 million, as was revenue growth which was expected to be 24%.
NMC's Healthcare unit remained the biggest contributor to revenue, growing 34% to USD1.56 billion from USD1.16 billion the prior year. Distribution revenue meanwhile rose by 12% to USD545.1 million from USD486.8 million.
During 2018, NMC's patient numbers increased by 30% to 7.5 million, and the average revenue per patient rose by 7.4% to USD150.
NMC Health declared a final dividend of 18.1 pence per share for 2018, up from 13.0p in 2017. The group paid no interim dividend for either year.
Looking ahead, the group expects Ebitda to rise by 18% to 20% in 2019, and revenue to grow by 22% to 24% from its 2018 figures.
"Strong operational performance of our existing assets, combined with smooth integration of previous and new acquisitions continue to translate into stellar financial performance. Both 2018 revenues and Ebitda came in ahead of our guidance at USD2.1 billion and USD487.4 million, respectively. Moreover, a strong start to the current year reinforces our confidence in the business and we remain confident that 2019 will prove to be another year of record top and bottom line," said Chief Executive Prasanth Manghat.
On a negative note, NMC's gross debt for 2018 rose considerably to USD1.99 billion from USD1.40 billion in 2017, though this was in line with expectations.
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