Singapore Paincare Holdings FRQ has reported earnings of $803,000 for the 1HFY2023 ended Dec 31, 2022, 64.6% lower than earnings of $2.3 million in the same period the year before.
The lower earnings were due to the generally higher expenses, although changes in inventories, employee benefits expenses and other expenses grew the most y-o-y.
Revenue, however, increased by 32.4% y-o-y to $11.0 million due to the increase in patients from the nation-wide vaccination programmes against Covid-19, a well as the arrivals through the Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) and the reopening of borders.
Other income fell by 40.6% y-o-y to $123,000 due to lower government grants.
Changes in inventories and inventories and consumables increased in tandem with the higher revenue.
The higher employee benefits grew due to the expansion in operations.
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Other expenses grew mainly due to an impairment loss on investment in associate of $0.65 million, and increase in general expenses of $0.16 million which include advertising and promotion, donation, GST expenses and more.
As at Dec 31, 2022, cash and cash equivalents stood at $11.9 million.
Earnings per share (EPS) stood at 0.45 on a basic and diluted basis.
No dividend was declared for the period.
“Our top line performance reflected the positive post-Covid-19 environment. Although revenue from our ongoing participation in the national vaccination programme has come down due to the high vaccination rate achieved, the increase in local patient footfall, as well as the influx of medical tourists when the borders re-opened in April 2022, more than made up for it,” says Dr Bernard Lee, executive director and CEO of Singapore Paincare.
“However, the Covid-19 era had also led to a severe shortage of trained medical practitioners in the healthcare industry with high staff attrition rate in many countries due to burn out from fighting the pandemic,” he adds. “Because of the stiff competition for trained staff both locally and overseas, our group had to make the necessary adjustments to employee compensation in order to retain existing staff and attract the new medical professionals we needed to support our expanded operations and growth plans. The increased staff costs ate into our bottom line, but it was necessary for us to build up a strong team that can sustain our top line growth.”
The group says it is optimistic about the next 12 months with the Singapore government announcing a slew of initiatives under its Healthier SG plan. The government’s updating of its national blueprint, the “2023 Action Plan for Successful Ageing” to ensure that the country’s greying population ages well, is also beneficial for the group.
“Pain is something we all experience as we grow old because of degeneration. As a pain-focused health services group with seniors making up the bulk of our patients, Singapore Paincare has always advocated preventive measures that can slow down the effects of aging. With our comprehensive suite of services and growing network of clinics, we believe we are more than able and ready to support the government’s efforts to promote active aging and preventive care,” continues Dr Lee.
Shares in Singapore Paincare closed 0.5 cent higher or 2.27% at 22.5 cents on Feb 14.
