Corporate Updates
Universal Medical Announces 2023 Interim Results Healthcare Business Surges 88% in Profit Attributable to Owners of the Parent
(August 23, 2023 Hong Kong) Genertec Universal Medical Group Company Limited (the "Universal Medical"or"Company"; Stock Coke: 2666.HK) is pleased to announce the interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2023.
Since 2023, the company served the "Healthy China" strategy and continued to expand its footprint in the healthcare sector, dedicated to promoting high-quality development for improving quality and expanding quantity with expected stability and energetic growth, and continued to realize the vision of "To Be the Most Trusted Global Leader in Medical & Healthcare Services". In the first half of 2023, the company recorded a revenue of RMB6,634.4 million in total, up by 16.1% as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. In particular, the healthcare business recorded a revenue of RMB3,646.1 million, up by 33.8% as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, with its proportion to the total revenue increased to 55.0%; the company recorded a profit for the period of RMB1,193.6million, up by 1.5% as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, of which, the healthcare business contributed RMB231.6 million, up by 61.1% as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year; the company recorded a profit attributable to owners of the parent of RMB1,093.2 million, up by 0.3% as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, of which, the healthcare business contributed RMB174.0 million, up by 88.0% as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year; and the company recorded a return on total assets (ROA) of 2.96% and a return on equity attributable to ordinary shareholders (ROE) of 15.25%. The indicators of income and the assets conditions maintained a steady and excellent performance.
Integrated Healthcare Service Steady Development: the Net Profit Margin of the Medical Institutions Increased to 5.28%
The medical institutions are not only the company’s core resources to build a healthcare conglomerate, but also the R&D and training center of the Group’s discipline operation, training center of the Group’s discipline operation, as well as the project cultivation and commercialization pool and the sharing center for basic resources and practice of the industrial units. With respect to the integrated healthcare service segment, focusing on the development of the hospital group’s core capacity, the company continuously build up the competition advantages of central state-owned enterprises in running medical care,so as to facilitate positive and continuous development of Hospital of SOEs and constantly improve operation efficiency and effectiveness. As at 30 June 2023, the number of consolidated medical institutions increased to 55 (including four Grade III Class A hospitals and 26 Grade II hospitals), with a capacity of 13,893 beds in total. In the first half of the year, the consolidated Hospitals of SOEs contributed to the company a revenue of RMB3,528.0 million, up by 33.4% as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year; recorded a profit for the period of RMB186.4 million in total, up by 62.0% as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year; and the net profit margin was 5.28%, up by 0.93 percentage point from the same period of the previous year.
Specialties and Healthcare Industry Accelerating Growth: Continuous Enhancement of Competitiveness via Internal & External Strategies
With the business foundation and professional core talent team of its own hospital group, the company strived to build replicable capabilities of specialties and industry operation while serving internal quality and efficiency enhancement, so as to create new profit growth drivers for the listed company. The performance contribution of this business segment mainly comes from providing hospital clients with life cycle management of medical equipment, medical devises sales and internet-based healthcare services.
In the field of nephrology, the company will focus on enhancing the core capabilities for nephropathy diagnosis and treatment of primary level hospitals, the establishment of nephropathy diagnosis and treatment flagship centers and municipal and provincial key specialties and the construction of high-quality blood purification centers. The company continuously deepened the industry layout of nephrology specialties through the scientific research results supported by digitalization. Up to the current moment, the company opened 21 new specialties departments in its member hospitals, continued to build a rapidly replicable operating system, and gradually leading to cooperation with external hospitals. In the first half of 2023, the company founded the nephropathy industry research institute, and have completed the acquisition of Beth Hesda Nephrology Hospital (畢士大(成都)腎病專科醫院) and Haiyang Senzhikang Hospital Co., Ltd. (海陽森之康醫院).
In the field of oncology, the company continues to push forward the construction, operation and standardization of tumor precision diagnosis and treatment centers, pool internal and external resources to build the flagship tumor specialty diagnosis and treatment benchmark inside and outside the hospital group, develop tumor radiotherapy business product solutions, expand the chain business scale through investment/construction, and promote the standardized, collaborative and efficient development of oncology specialties.The tumor precision diagnosis and treatment center of Ma’anshan MCC17 Hospital (馬鞍山十七治醫院) operated by the company was opened in March 2023. In June 2023, the company concluded a cooperative arrangement with Mevion Medical Group (邁勝醫療集團), under which both parties will jointly establish a tumor precision medical service company as the sole platform to provide oncology radiotherapy services by both parties in the PRC, with an aim to accelerate the establishment of leading oncology diagnosis and treatment business system and intelligent oncology diagnosis and treatment platform in the PRC, continuing to empower the development of the external and internal hospitals of the company.
From the perspective of the life circle management of equipment, the company relies on its own hospital group as a team capability training and business practice base to provide hospital customers with life cycle management services for medical equipment from procurement planning, repair and maintenance to refined operation management. Based on its equipment management and operation capabilities and financial strength accumulated over the years, the company believe that it can achieve rapid improvement of the business scale and core capabilities of the equipment life cycle management through endogenous development and extensional mergers and acquisitions. So far, the company was entrusted the operation of 14 hospitals with the assets under management with a value over RMB3 billion. The value of contracts entered into in the first half of 2023 amounted to over RMB90 million. In August 2023, the company acquired 85% equity interests of Casstar Medical Technology Wuxi Co., Ltd. ("Casstar") (凱思軒達醫療科技無錫有限公司) at the consideration of RMB467.5 million. Casstar is recognized as a high-tech enterprise, a provincial specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprise, and a provincial gazelle enterprise, and has been committed to providing maintenance services for various type of medical imaging equipment since its establishment, with maintenance capacity covering mainstream medical imaging equipment, as well as life emergency, respiratory anaesthesia, hemodialysis and ultrasound equipment. It served a total of over 1,500 hospitals and maintained long-term cooperation relationship with more than 500 hospitals with asset under management of over RMB10 billion, providing nationwide service capacity. It also has a number of intellectual right patents, enjoys core strength in the Internet of Things, digital development and other fields, and is a leading enterprise with great influence in the industry. This acquisition will provide strong support for the company to improve its core competitiveness in the life cycle management equipment, and will accelerate the implementation of the company’s industry consolidation strategy, so as to facilitate rapid development of its business.
Financial Business Resilience: Solid Profitability and Asset Quality, Continuous Financing Structure Optimization.
In 2023, faced with the impact of various factors such as increasing financing costs in the overseas markets, intensified market competition at home, tightening financial regulation and shortage in quality assets, the company always took risk control as a top priority, and were committed to ensuring quality project development for our customers. By keeping abreast of the market development, the company strived to arrange financing structure properly, so as to ensure liquidity sufficiency and security while minimising the pressure of rising costs as a result of US Dollar interest rate hikes on the offshore markets. In the first half of 2023, the company recorded income of finance business of RMB2,988.2 million in total, remaining stable as compared with the corresponding period of the previous year. As at 30 June 2023, its net interest-earning assets reached RMB71,764.5 million, representing an increase of 10.0% as compared to that at the beginning of the year; the non-performing asset ratio was 0.98%; the overdue ratio (30 days) was 0.88%, and the provision coverage ratio was 255.06%.
Given that the current domestic and international economy and financial markets continue to be confronted with many risks, challenges and uncertainties, Universal Medical will continue to promote the steady and safe development of its finance business, and give full play to the finance business to empower the development of the medical care industry, so as to build a solid moat for the high-quality development of a central state-owned and listed enterprise.
It is worth mentioning that in terms of high-quality development of listed companies, Universal Medical has been continuously enhancing its ESG construction and fulfilling its social responsibilities as a central state-owned enterprise. The company has been actively engaged in medical assistance in Xinjiang, Tibet, and overseas, and the "XinYan Public Welfare Fund(新燕公益基金)" has provided assistance to over 500 patients, effectively meeting the clinical treatment needs of critically ill patients in economically disadvantaged areas. In April, the company successfully launched the first "Rural Revitalization" labeled medium-term notes, and in July, it successfully secured the first domestic syndicated loan in line with green loan principles. The company has also been selected as one of the "China ESG Top 100 Listed Companies(中国ESG上市公司先锋100)" released by the China Central Television, ranking 62nd.
In the future, the company will continue to adhere to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, promote high-quality development, and strive for new breakthroughs, creating greater value returns for all shareholders.