28 August 2002

Raffles Medical Group gain up 51% Raffles Medical Group's (RMG's) earnings for the six months ended June 30 rose 51 per cent to $1.3 million compared with the same period last year. The group's improved performance was helped by the narrowing of losses at its Raffles Hospital, which started operations in March last year.

The hospital is expected to 'break even for the second half of the year, way ahead of market expectations of start-up losses for the first three to five years,' RMG executive chairman Loo Choon Yong said in a statement. 'Occupancy levels at the hospital are above 40 per cent currently, but with the economy improving I expect this to go up to 50 per cent in the second half,' he told reporters at a briefing yesterday.

RMG's turnover rose by 11 per cent to $41.8 million, helped by a 42 per cent jump in turnover at Raffles Hospital, as well as 'steady and consistent growth' at clinic operations. The only blight on the group's earnings landscape was its Hongkong operations, which was hit by the poor economic performance of the territory. This affected sales adversely, resulting in a loss of $0.8 million.

"But the patients are coming back and I think we shall see much reduced losses in Hongkong in the second half", Dr Loo said. Looking ahead, the board expects the 'positive performance and profit trends in the first half to continue into the second half'. This was in contrast to financial year 2001, when the group suffered a maiden net loss of $8.7 million. Interim earnings per share climbed to 0.34 cent from 0.22 cent in the same period last year.

Net tangible asset backing per share dropped to 23.32 cents from 25.56 cents previously. No interim dividend was declared, similar to last year.