IHH Healthcare posts 51% drop in Q2 net profit; appoints new group CEO
Renald Yeo
MALAYSIAN hospital operator IHH Healthcare reported a 51 per cent drop in net profit to RM301.8 million (S$87.9 million) in the second quarter ended Jun 30, 2023, from RM612.1 million in the year-ago period.
This was due mainly to “a high base last year when we had exceptional gains”, the group said in a bourse filing on Tuesday (Aug 29).
Earnings per share for the period stood at 3.43 sen, compared with 6.69 sen per share in the same period a year earlier.
Revenue in Q2 grew 7 per cent to RM4.7 billion, from RM4.4 billion previously. The increase came from higher patient volumes and revenue growth across all markets, IHH said.
The board has declared an interim dividend of 3.5 sen per share, which will be paid out to shareholders on Oct 27. No dividend was declared in Q2 2022.
For the six months ended Jun 30, 2023, net profit grew 53 per cent to RM1.7 billion, from RM1.1 billion previously. Revenue in H1 2023 stood at RM9.8 billion, up 15 per cent from the preceding period’s RM8.5 billion.
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“Moving ahead, we expect continued revenue and ROE (return on equity) growth,” said Joe Sim, group chief operating officer (COO) at IHH.
In a separate statement on Tuesday, IHH announced that Sim has resigned from his position as group COO to return to the public service.
Sim, who joined IHH in 2017 and was appointed group COO on Jan 1, 2020, was chief executive officer at the National University Hospital from March 2009 to September 2016.
IHH also said that Prem Kumar Nair, who is CEO of IHH Healthcare Singapore, will be appointed group CEO from Oct 1.
Dr Nair’s appointment follows the surprise departure of former group CEO Kelvin Loh in February.
Prior to joining IHH in 2020 in his current role, Dr Nair held the roles of chief corporate officer and managing director of Singapore healthcare at Raffles Medical Group from 2015 to 2017.
“Dr Nair is a physician and healthcare executive with an illustrious career of over three decades in both the public and private healthcare sectors,” IHH said.
The group will “continue its organic growth path” by expanding its bed capacity by some 25 per cent – or close to 3,000 new beds — across Malaysia, India, Turkey and Europe over the next three years.
Other initiatives will include driving productivity and operational efficiencies by increasing occupancy rates; and reconfiguring its portfolio to remove underperforming assets, IHH said.
Shares of IHH Healthcare closed unchanged at S$1.75 on Tuesday, prior to the announcements.
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