EMIS Profit Drops By More Than Half In 2017 Amid Service Level Charges

LONDON (Alliance News) - EMIS Group PLC said on Wednesday that despite slight revenue growth, profit was cut in half in 2017 by a one-off service reporting charge and costs from its reorganisation programme.

The connected healthcare software and services company reported pretax profit for 2017 at GBP10.9 million, down significantly from GBP25.3 million mainly due to a cost of GBP11.2 million from service level reporting charges.

In January, the company uncovered failures in meeting service levels and reporting obligations for an NHS contract, under which it provides its web product to general practitioners in England.

However revenue rose by 1.0% to GBP160.4 million from GBP158.7 million, including a GBP900,000 contribution from the 2016 acquisition of social care software provider Intrelate. Organically, revenue was helped by higher licences, maintenance and software support, and new contracts in the EMIS Care segment.

EMIS will pay a final dividend of 12.9 pence per share, up from 11.7p on 2016, giving a total payout of 25.8p, up 10% from 23.4p.

"Whilst we are proud of what we have already achieved in delivering connected healthcare, we are continuing to build on this with operational enhancements and key projects that will give us a stable platform for future growth," said Chief Executive Officer Andy Thorburn.

"I believe that the robust management of legacy matters is essential, to both enhance our culture and improve performance going forward. This means being more performance-led, with greater accountability, improved operational execution and an increased focus on our customers, users, partners, patients and their needs," Thorburn added.

Shares in EMIS Group were up 7.4% at 773.00 pence on Wednesday.