LONDON (Alliance News) - Georgia Healthcare Group PLC on Wednesday reported an increase in interim profit and revenue, as its healthcare services and pharmacy arms both continued to expand.
Georgia Healthcare posted a pretax profit increase of 17% to GEL28.5 million, about GBP8.6 million, from GEL24.3 million the year before.
Revenue increased 13% to GEL419.5 million from GEL371.0 million.
Georgia Healthcare is not paying an interim dividend, unchanged from last year.
The company's healthcare service business and pharmacy & distribution business both saw an increase in revenue.
The healthcare service business revenue increased 14% to GEL151.0 million from GEL132.9 million. Its pharmacy & distribution business revenue increased 14% to an interim record of GEL254.2 million from GEL222.3 million.
The pharmacy business growth was driven by the expansion of pharmacies to 259, with plans to expand beyond 300 stores.
Healthcare pretax profit decreased 40% to GEL9.0 million from GEL15.1, but pharmacy pretax profit increased 66% to GEL19.3 million from GEL11.5 million.
The company's healthcare service business profit was down in the period due to investments in completing and expanding capacity at both Regional Hospital and Tbilisi Referral Hospital.
Looking forward, Georgia Healthcare will focus on the roll-out of its new hospitals and services - hoping to grow productivity.
The company is also expecting to "capture more of the value of synergies" across its businesses.
Shares in Georgia Healthcare were down 0.6% Wednesday at 257.35 pence each.
