GEM Healthcare - Lokman Hekim on track to meet guidance
/Trading update and outlook
Trading update and guidance - April and May traffic exceeded our expectations. All of our locations indeed performed either on or above budget in the first two months of June quarter. We are on track to meet our full year guidance shared earlier in the year with risk now tilted towards the upside.
Update on investments - Akay roll-out including additions and room refurbishments are on track to become operational by year-end as projected. The second building construction in Etlik to treble the location's capacity should be completed by early next year. The recruitment of academic personnel nears completion while the Medical School itself has started admitting students this year as planned. On our assumptions, the university project should become earnings accretive by 2020. Elazig physiotherapy and rehabilitation business should start operations early Fall, two months ahead of schedule. Demet, which has turned EBITDA positive during the March quarter, is now up and running with all its divisions.
The sensitivity of our cost of capital to interest rates and exchange rates is low. (1) Our entire debt is in local currency. (2) Some 87% of the stock of debt is fixed rate as at March 2018. (3) The average duration on the debt is 21 months as at March. (4) We have no debt denominated in foreign currencies.
June quarter events and the investor calendar - We had a two-day roadshow visiting shareholders and investors in Warsaw earlier in the month. We discussed March quarter results and updated investors on various projects. We intend to remain active with investor events in the remainder of 2018 participating in roadshows and conferences across Europe and North America in the second half of the year.