SINGAPORE (Aug 28): IHH Healthcare, the private healthcare operator which acquired a controlling stake in India’s second-largest hospital chain Fortis Healthcare in July, reported a 48% fall in 2Q18 earnings to RM165.11 million ($55 million) from a year ago.
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The weaker bottomline was due to the absence of a one-off divestment gain of RM241.1 million from the divestment of Apollo Hospitals which was recorded in 2Q17.
Revenue for 2Q18 ended June fell 4% to RM2.66 billion. This was due to the strengthening of the Malaysian ringgit against the currencies in other countries in which IHH operates in.
On constant currency terms, revenue would have grown 14% due to organic growth at existing operations and the continued ramping up of operations at Gleneagles Hong Kong and Acibadem Altunizade in Istanbul which opened last March.
For the 1H18 ended June, earnings fell 72% y-o-y to RM222.34 million although revenue rose 1% to RM5.51 billion.
In its outloook, Dr Tan See Leng, IHH’s managing director and CEO, said the group is watching developments involving the Turkish lira closely and is accelerating plans to restructure and reduce Acibadem’s foreign debt to manage its exposure to currency volatility.
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Year to date, share in IHH are down 4.6% to close at $1.85 on Tuesday.
