PETALING JAYA: IHH Healthcare Bhd posted a net loss of RM319.79 million in the first quarter ended March 31, against a net profit of RM89.51 million in the same quarter of the previous year due to a impairment on the remaining goodwill from an investment in Global Hospitals in India and RM60 million in forex losses.
Revenue for the period fell 2.4% to RM3.56 billion from RM3.64 billion.
According to the group’s Bursa filing, its operations in Parkway Pantai ebitda for the quarter declined 12% to RM486.6 million as a result of cost incurred to implement Covid-19 precautionary and safety measures at its hospitals and healthcare facilities.
Its Acibadem Holdings operation saw a 7% drop in ebitda to RM217.3 million due to weaker Turkish lira against the ringgit for the quarter, and lower inpatient admissions.
IHH’s IMU Health operations saw an 11% increase in ebitda from higher revenue and its PLife REIT’s ebitda rose 2% to RM70.4 million as a result of rent contribution from properties acquired in 4Q’19.
For its outlook ahead, it stated that a prolonged fallout from subsequent waves of Covid-19 outbreaks and renewed lockdowns may further dampen the group’s performance.
The group said that the impact is partially mitigated by diversifying into new revenue streams through planned growth in areas including diagnostics, laboratory testing and telemedicine; improving case mix and enforcing cost controls and capital discipline including by deferring all non-critical capital expansion projects.
IHH’s managing director and CEO Dr Kelvin Loh, commented that the group was affected by the unprecedented pandemic like all businesses.
“Still, we delivered resilient operational performance in Q1 2020. Headline profits were affected by a thorough portfolio review and impairments of non-Fortis India investments made in 2015 and earlier,” he said in a press release.
