Abano half-year rise sounds sweet

HEALTHCARE business Abano Healthcare has had a big lift in half-year profit, helped by an improvement in its struggling audiology business.

The company has reported a net profit of $4.1 million in the six months to November 30, up nearly 50 per cent from $2.8m in the same period last year.

Abano’s profit increase came on the back of a rise in revenue, to $115m from $106m in the same period last year.

The stronger results were driven by growing revenues and improvements in same-store operating profit across Abano’s dental group, as well as a reduction in losses from Abano’s joint venture audiology business Bay International.

The majority of the audiology business is located in Australia and the Australian side is now delivering a monthly operating profit, with year to date samestore revenue growth of 30 per cent.

Dentistry is the biggest part of the business for Abano, which owns Lumino in New Zealand and Abano Healthcare has lifted its half-year profit by almost 50 per cent on improved performance from its dental and audiology businesses. Dental Partners in Australia. Lumino recorded same-store sales growth of almost 5 per cent in the first half, in a market that Abano believes shrank over the period.

‘‘Meanwhile, Dental Partners same store sales growth in Australia is steady on last year, in con- trast to the Australian dental market which we believe has also been experiencing negative growth trends,’’ the company said.

Abano has declared an interim dividend of 10c per share, up from 7.3 per cent in the same period last year.