Middle East-focused hospital operator group NMC Health plc (LON:NMC) lifted revenues by a third and predicted another strong year ahead as more sites come on stream.
“Sustained ramp-up of utilisation at facilities we opened in recent years, integration of acquired assets and continued discipline in organic and inorganic expansions should all translate into a very promising 2018 and beyond,” said Prasanth Manghat, chief executive.
“The most important assets to keep a track of in this regard are: NMC Royal, Brightpoint and Chronic Care for ramp-up of operations, Al Zahra Hospital and CosmeSurge from an integration standpoint and the GCC [Gulf Co-operation Council] in general and KSA [Saudi Arabia] in particular for additional acquisitions as we continue to see the benefit from acquiring assets and optimising their capabilities within the NMC network/model.”
READ: FTSE 100 stocks you should have bet your house on in 2017
NMC operates 125 hospitals and clinics across 13 countries and is also one of the world’s top 3 in-vitro fertilisation operators. Over a third of its licensed bed capacity is in Saudi Arabia.
Sales at the FTSE 100 group rose to US$1.6bn (US$1.22bn) in the year to December, while underlying profits [EBITDA] rose 43% to US$353mln.
The dividend rises by 20% to 13p.
Shares eased 2.6% to 3,272p.