NMC Health Care, the biggest provider in the UAE by market value, said that its profit in 2016 advanced by 61.4 per cent, boosted by expansion in the maternity and fertility segments as well as rising demand for long-term care.
The Abu Dhabi-based company’s profit boost came despite new insurance rules last year, where Emiratis paid for a greater proportion of their private-sector treatment.
Net profit attributed to the parent company rose to US$132.7 million last year from $82.2m in 2015, the company said. Revenues increased by 38.6 per cent to $1.22 billion last year from $880.9m in 2015. Of that, revenues from maternity and fertility rose by 263 per cent year-on-year to $187m, while long-term and home-care revenues increased by 182 per cent to $87.6m, it said.
"NMC Health delivered record growth in 2016 as we began to reap the long-term rewards of several years of progress on the two stages of our growth strategy," said B R Shetty, who stepped down as chief executive yesterday to become joint non-executive chairman.
Prasanth Manghat, the former deputy chief executive, was promoted to chief executive with immediate effect. Mr Manghat has been an employee of NMC for 12 years and oversaw the listing of the business on the London Stock Exchange in 2012.
"In recent years NMC has expanded its asset and brand portfolio organically and inorganically into additional healthcare services segments," Mr Shetty said.
The company’s fertility business was enhanced by the acquisition in January last year of Fakih IVF as well as growing returns from Brightpoint Royal Women’s Hospital, a maternity hospital in Abu Dhabi that opened in 2014.
The gain in long-term healthcare, a fast-growing segment, comes as the UAE, saving on costs, is trying to find enough beds locally to meet the needs of its citizens who require long-term assistance instead of sending them abroad.
London-listed NMC acquired long-term medical care provider Provita in June 2015 for $160.6m from the private equity company TVM Capital Healthcare Partners and its partners.
"By providing specialised long-term care, NMC can help to absorb capacity from the more expensive and comparatively lower quality of life ICU beds currently occupied by long-term acute and sub acute-care patients within NMC and other local/international private sector and government hospitals," the healthcare provider said.
The introduction of a 20 per cent co-pay requirement in Abu Dhabi for Emiratis seeking private health care began on July 1. A move to include long-term health care in the new system was eventually scrapped earlier this year after consumer complaints to the local health authority over the affordability of fees that can amount to Dh60,000 or more per month. Overall, however, the introduction of co-pay has dented the industry as many are put off seeking treatment in the private sector.
NMC’s competitor, South Africa’s Mediclinic, last month warned that patient volumes and operating performance at Abu Dhabi’s Al Noor Hospitals Group, which it owns, are below expectations as a result of doctors leaving and the new co-pay rules.
Shares of NMC Health rose by 0.4 per cent late afternoon to 1,800 pence yesterday.
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