February 18 (SeeNews) - Romanian privately-owned medical services provider MedLife Group [BSE: M] said on Monday its net profit surged by 88% year-on-year in 2018, reaching 16.4 million lei ($3.9 million/ 3.5 million euro).
Operating income jumped by 27.5% to 804.4 million lei, while operating expenses grew 28.6% to 766 million lei, MedLife said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, BVB, citing preliminary results.
Turnover increased by 27.5% to 794.5 million lei on the back of significant growth in all business lines, mainly clinics, hospitals, pharmacies and laboratories.
According to the company, the results are in line with the initial estimates and significantly above the growth rate of the market.
MedLife's operating profit jumped by 36.8% to 16.9 million lei in 2018.
"2018 was a challenging year, full of projects that focused on development through acquisitions. We have completed the Polisano transaction and brought to our group through acquisition of the majority stakes three other companies: Ghencea Medical Center, Solomed and Transilvania Imagistica, thus reaching a very good coverage of the country," Mihai Marcu, CEO and president of MedLife, said.
The company aims to maintain the same dynamic pace of development in 2019.
"From the listing on the BVB, after a 2015 year in which we had a turnover of 85 million euro, we were the first private medical company in Romania that exceeded the 100 million euro threshold reaching 176 million euro at the end of 2018. This, coupled with the acquisition of the Rozsakert majority stake in Hungary and the new openings, gives us the hope that we will be the first to exceed the threshold of 200 million euro in 2019," Marcu added.
In January, MedLife acquired 51% interest in Rozsakert Medical Center (RMC) Group - its first acquisition outside Romania.
MedLife shares traded 0.37% higher at 26.9 lei on the Bucharest Stock Exchange as at 1154 CET on Monday.
(1 euro = 4.7401 lei)