Parkway 3Q profit rises 23% to S$15 Million
Parkway 3Q profit rises 23% to S$15 Million
Yoolim Lee, Bloomberg/Singapore
Parkway Holdings Ltd., Asia's second-biggest publicly traded
hospital operator, said third-quarter profit rose 23 percent
because more overseas patients sought treatment at its hospitals
in Singapore.
Net income climbed to S$15 million (US$8.8 million), or 2.05
cents a share, in the three months ended Sept. 30, from S$12.2
million, or 1.68 cents a share, a year earlier, the company said
on Monday in a filing to the Singapore stock exchange. Sales rose
15 percent to S$118.8 million.
Parkway is aiming to benefit from increased demand for private
hospital services in Southeast Asia as the population ages and
more overseas patients seek special treatment at its hospitals in
Singapore.
"We continue to see strong growth in the number of tertiary
cases and foreign patients coming to our Singapore hospitals as
well as steady growth in our international hospitals," Parkway
Managing Director Lim Cheok Peng said in the statement.
In the third quarter, new neuro-surgery and urology centers in
East Shore Hospital, a refurnished day ward and an endoscopy
center in Mount Elizabeth Hospital and a sports medicine center
at Gleneagles Hospital added to growth in revenue, it said.
Parkway plans to expand its health-care business in the region
by acquiring more companies.
"We will continue to seek opportunities to further augment our
leading market position and in turn maximize returns to our
shareholders," Chairman Richard Seow said in the statement.
Parkway's wholly owned unit Gleneagles Management Services
recently signed an agreement to manage the Asian Heart Institute
and Research Centre, marking its entry to the health-care market
in Mumbai, according to the statement.
Parkway will provide management and operational support to the
center, an advanced cardiac-care specialty hospital that is owned
by Contemporary Healthcare Private Ltd. of India.
The agreement "provides us deeper inroads into the rapidly
growing private health-care market in India," Lim said.
Parkway in September spent S$139 million to buy 31 percent of
Pantai Holdings Bhd., Malaysia's biggest private health-care
service provider, to expand in Southeast Asia.
In India, the second-fastest growing major economy in the
world behind China, Parkway has operations in Calcutta, Hyderabad
and Mumbai. In Malaysia, where the economy is forecast by the
central bank to expand as much as 6 percent this year, it has
hospitals in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
In the first nine months of this year, Parkway's net income
rose 18 percent from a year ago to S$44.3 million. Sales rose 10
percent to S$335.1 million, reflecting increased contribution
from Singapore hospitals totaling S$219.1 million.
Admissions for Singapore hospitals rose 3.6 percent from a
year earlier in the first nine months. Day cases rose more than 2
percent. Growth was driven by patients from Indonesia and the
United Arab Emirates seeking high-end treatment at Parkway's
hospitals, it said.
Revenue from international hospitals totaled S$42.5 million in
the first nine months of the year, boosted by those in Brunei and
Penang, Malaysia.