GHG.L Share News (GHG)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Georgia Healthcare Group PLC, which was spun out of BGEO Group PLC and floated on the London Stock Exchange in November, on Monday reported a jump in full-year pretax profit.

The group's pretax profit rose to GEL23.6 million in 2015, from GEL14.5 million the prior year, boosted by growth in both healthcare services and medical insurance. Net revenue rose to GEL242.7 million from GEL198.1 million, as operating expenses edged up to GEL40.5 million from GEL34.4 million.

The healthcare services arm makes up most of the group's pretax profit, and it boasted a 60% increase to GEL21.6 million. The medical insurance arm saw a faster rate of growth, with pretax profit almost doubling to GEL2.1 million.

"Georgia Healthcare Group is in extremely good shape to benefit over the next few years from the combination of its position as the largest healthcare services and medical insurance provider in the fast-growing, predominantly privately-owned, Georgian healthcare services market," Chief Executive Nikoloz Gamkrelidze said.

"We expect the government to continue prioritising healthcare services and this, combined with both organic and further acquisition opportunities, leaves the group well positioned to deliver strong growth in 2016 and beyond," Gamkrelidze added.

BGEO, which owns 85.6 million of the 128.2 million shares in Georgia Healthcare, is due to report annual results for 2015 on Tuesday this week.

Shares in Georgia Healthcare were untraded at 165.0 pence on Monday morning, while shares in BGEO were up 2.5% at 1,658.00p.

By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini

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