IHH Healthcare slips into the red in third quarter

PETALING JAYA: IHH Healthcare Bhd fell into the red in the third quarter ended Sept 30, with a net loss of RM104.1 million against a net profit of RM82.1 million in the same quarter last year, on lower foreign exchange gains with the strengthening of the ringgit and depreciation of some of its functional currencies.

Revenue for the quarter under review inched slightly up to RM2.84 billion from RM2.80 billion sustained by organic growth at existing operations and contribution from the Gleneagles Hong Kong Hospital and the Acibadem Altunizade Hospital, both of which opened in March 2017.

“As long-term healthcare providers, we focus on delivering strong operational performance, which we continue to do in all our markets. We are encouraged by the operational resilience of our business, even when our net profit was affected by the forex volatility in Turkey,” said IHH Managing Director and CEO, Dr Tan See Leng said in a separate statement.

“As we optimise existing operations, we continue to position the group for growth. In India, we are excited to officially welcome Fortis Healthcare to the IHH family. Our immediate priority is to stabilise operations, improve operational metrics and ramp up performance to realise this transformational opportunity for the group. We are confident that we have put the blocks in place to ensure IHH balances current returns with a long growth runway,” he added.

For the cumulative nine-month period, the group’s net profit plunged 86.38% to RM118.30 million from RM868.70 million in the same period last year. Revenue increased to RM8.40 billion from RM8.30 billion.