MAY & BAKER RECOVERS, BACKS PROFIT

May & Baker confident of growth in 2016

Despite the economic challenges in Nigeria, May & Baker Nigeria Plc has said that it is optimistic of a positive outcome in the ongoing business year because its business performance in the first half of 2016 have been very impressive.

The healthcare group said it rode against the industry and macroeconomic headwinds to sustain appreciable growth in its performance in the first half of this 2016 as it continued to benefit from improving cost and operating efficiencies.

Key extracts of the interim report and accounts of the group for the six-month period ended June 30, 2016 showed that turnover rose by nine per cent.
The group results showed that turnover rose to N3.70bn in first half of 2016 compared with N3.41bn in the first half 2015.

The company said it sustained growth in pre- and post-tax profits, as it reduced its finance cost and distribution, sales and marketing expenses by 10 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively.

However, cost of sales grew by 16 per cent from N2.25bn to N2.60bn due to increases in material costs, devaluation of the naira and high power cost driven by rampant gas outages. This affected gross profit, which reduced from N1.16bn in the first half 2015 to N1.1bn in the first half 2016.

This report underlines the sentiments expressed by a cross section of stakeholders that the healthcare sector in Nigeria possesses huge growth prospect and holds a vast investment opportunities for the private sectors and international investors in the global healthcare industry.

A recent report indicated that Nigerians spend over one billion dollars on healthcare abroad annually. “The actual figure will be much larger than this when one considers that the unofficial sector is not represented in this figure,”Dr. Richardson Ajayi, Managing Director, The Bridge Clinic.

Speaking at the 2016 Healthcare Business International Conference, held at the Royal College of Physicians, Regent’s Park, London recently, Dr. Ajayi said that a private sector-driven service delivery holds the future in the in Nigerian healthcare sector.

He informed the gathering of policy makers, operators and investors in the health sector from many parts of the world that Nigeria’s public health facilities will not be able to meet the healthcare requirements of the emerging middle class in Nigeria.

“A private sector-driven healthcare system will build an efficient healthcare ecosystem that will address the shortcomings of the public sector facilities and minimize out-bound medical tourism,” he said.