Charles Jillings, CEO of Utilico, energized by strong economic momentum across Latin America. Watch the video here.
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This is looking like hitting 200p. Remarkable bearing in mind the NHS backlog and demand for private outpatient work. It must take a lot of skill to erode a share price like this.
If a private healthcare / medical group cannot make a profit in the current environment then I fail to see how it will ever really do so. This still looks like it is struggling to make a real return on investment / capital, despite demand at an all time high, however this is carrying a fair amount of debt that it needs to service. There will be leases on some properties (not all as some freehold) that have inflation clauses in them, increasing rental payments further still, increasing staff wages etc. On top of this Spire has no real foothold in London and HCA / Cleveland dominate in the capital - likely due to the fact this is where the real returns are to be made.
In today’s news
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64784198
I couldn't agree more. Ash has only played lip service over his tenure. When he too the helm I seem to remember the price was £4.30. He and his team have destroyed what seemed a solid business.
Used to hold these but lost faith in what is a very poor CEO (Ash) for shareholders and an incompetent board.
They turned down an offer of 300p+ from Mediclinic then saw shares plummet to 99p.
Absolute clowns.
This deserves to go bankrupt. High debt, barely making a profit, even using adjusted metrics the P/E here is close to SIXTY!!
At the moment the market thinks different...lets hope it changes it's mind...
Looks like a great set of results for last year and very encouraging for the future.
Spire raised to buy at Peel Hunt
The deferred tax charge in H1 2021 included a one off charge of £17.7m as a result of deferred tax assets and liabilities being revalued from 19% to 25% following the Government's announcement to increase the corporation tax rate which is due to take place on 1 April 2023. Whilst there is speculation of a change to the corporation tax rate with the appointment of the new Prime Minister, no change has been substantively enacted, and therefore deferred tax remains valued at the 25%. Should a change in the rate be enacted, the deferred tax assets and liabilities will be revalued at that point.
my favorite hospitals
From The Times this morning:
Record NHS waiting lists are driving patients towards private healthcare, creating “fundamental” changes in the healthcare system and delivering bumper profits for companies.
Spire Healthcare, one of Britain’s biggest private healthcare providers, today said revenue from private patients had risen by more than a fifth in the first half of this year, against the same period in 2021, and was up by almost a third compared to before the pandemic.
The results coincided with figures from NHS England showing the number of people waiting for care has reached another new high of 6.8 million.
There were 377,689 people who had been waiting for more than a year at the end of July, up by almost 22,000 on the month before.
Justin Ash, chief executive of Spire, said the NHS delays were “not good news for anybody” but it has contributed to a “fundamental shift in consumer thinking”.
Research from the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, which represents private healthcare companies, including Spire, has found that 50 per cent of respondents were thinking of going private.
Demand for private healthcare has been increasing since before the pandemic.
Ash, 57, said private patients were from a “much broader socio-economic group than it used to be”.
“The preponderance have family incomes over £50,000, but there’s been quite an increase in those with family incomes of £40,000 and younger people.”
The core market remains people aged over 55, as those needing care tend to be older, but there has been a strong increase in younger people, those under 35, accessing private care and those in lower socio-economic groups.
He said it showed there is a “real shift” and not just for hospital care, such as for hip replacements, but for outpatient care, such as diagnoses, blood tests and MRI scans, as well as for GP access.
The number of people accessing Spire’s private GP service grew by 69 per cent compared to the first half of last year and is up by 169 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.
Overall revenue at Spire, including those self-paying, private medical insurance customers and NHS referrals, rose by 7.1 per cent to £597.9 million and adjusted operating profits by 12.6 per cent to £54.6 million.
The company recently signed a new four-year agreement with Bupa to provide services to its UK health insurance customers for the next four years.
Spire, which has been advertising on television, said that although its customers were “not immune” to higher inflation, its research showed “the typical private patient is able to access the funds for private care and healthcare is a key spending priority”.
A majority of its private patients remain insured via company schemes, a sector which has also returned to growth.
Agree Nimrod, good to see net debt down and more private / self pay activity and positive new business areas to develop. Another year of debt reduction, sales expansion, should then show better net profits. Remains a takeover target and has been very stable recently SP wise. One I am less worried than others but slow progress expected.
Results are positive but no resumption of dividend yet.....in a better climate of no wars, settled political scene and a stable market then I think the SP would respond more positively....we are where we are and investors are being very careful with many withdrawing their funds rather than speculating....
jlovie I am with you on the investing dilemma.
I've tried setting automatic stops at around -10% but I've found that as soon as I invest in anything it immediately goes down hitting the stop within a days.
Make it over 333p & I'd be happier, what I paid for these about 6 years ago.
I'm pleasantly surprised that it's recovered quite a bit recently though, I'd all but written these off a few years ago.
It's an aspect of investing I'm really bad at. Holding something that has a big drop, then a slow recovery.
Getting out with a smaller loss should be the plan rather than holding forever hoping to get back in profit, but I end up holding stuff for years when the money could be put to better use.
The quote I heard was "the market doesn't know your entry point".
I agree we're still a target. All a matter of how much someone is prepared to pay. I'd settle for £3.20.
Yes, I think 320p minimum if an offer were to be considered here, just based on last year's rejection.
Must be due to the offer made to Mediclinic which was rebuffed today. I guess it shows that the real value of Spire if a bid came would be well above current price and some bids for companies like Mediclinic and Biffa have been made this week. Just a positive sign in my view that this company must still be a target.
Offer in the pipeline ?
I wonder why?
Actually lost more than 20% since the turn of the year. I'm adding on weakness so I'll be well set when it eventually rebounds or somebody comes in with an offer. Long term although I will take a bit of profit when it gets back to 250p if they don't reinstate the divi.
There is no obvious reason. Everything trading exceptionally well.
I suspect the market was waiting for an update on trading performance for first quarter. See todays RNS. :-)
Positive RNS this morning ahead of todays AGM.
Expect a significant reaction from the market today.
Roger65 Spire have made considerable redundancies in an effort to reduce costs. Will be interesting to see how this impacts the bottom line as undoubtedly the style of service changes.