Transcription of Finance News Network Interview with Pulse Health Limited (ASX:PHG) Managing Director and CEO, Phillipa Blakey Lelde Smits: Pulse Health Limited
(ASX:PHG) operates private hospitals. The Company’s portfolio, which is currently across New South Wales and Queensland, includes rehabilitation, mental health and regional acute hospitals and day surgeries. I’m Lelde Smits and joining me at ASX Investor Series in Sydney is the Company’s Managing Director and CEO, Phillipa Blakey. Phillipa, welcome.
Phillipa Blakey: Thank you, it’s a pleasure to be here.
Lelde Smits: Could you start by outlining where your assets are located and also, what are your plans to expand your footprint?
Phillipa Blakey: Our assets are at the moment only in New South Wales and Queensland. We have two in metro Sydney and the others in regional New South Wales. And we have a new one coming on the Gold Coast, a couple on the Sunshine Coast and then in regional Queensland.
In terms of expansion, we’re interested in expansion and looking at opportunities throughout New South Wales, Queensland, WA and Victoria. But moving away from the focus on the regional areas and more towards metro or fringe metro, where the demographics are more supportive of scale and growth.
Lelde Smits: Pulse Health has tied up a number of divestments and acquisitions this year. What are some of the highlights?
Phillipa Blakey: It’s been really good to really crisp up our strategy, and be able to focus more on our core business. So we’ve divested our community care business. And our strategy is to focus purely as an operator of private hospitals, and day surgeries. So we’ve sort of cleared the deck of non-core assets and we’re about to actually, close one of our smaller hospitals in regional Queensland.
And we’ve also just done a great acquisition here in Sydney at the Hills Clinic, a beautiful new, quite new mental health clinic. It’s 59 beds, regarded as probably one of the top mental health hospitals in Sydney. And we’ve also got our hospital that we’re commissioning on the Gold Coast and we’ll have the first patient, on the table there in September. That’s a specialist surgical hospital; they have a really wide range of surgery on the Gold Coast.
Lelde Smits: How did your hospitals perform over the first half, and what are your expectations for the remainder of the year?
Phillipa Blakey: We performed well in the first half, I was pretty happy about that. We saw a good 12 per cent increase in revenue and a good lift in NPAT, as well. Our guidance for the year was for a 20 per cent growth on EBITDA from last year, from existing assets. And we confirmed that guidance at the end of H1 and we’re continuing to confirm it, since then. So the expectation is certainly that we’ll achieve that.
Lelde Smits: What factors in the healthcare market do you believe will continue to support the Company’s growth?
Phillipa Blakey: I see the regulatory regime as continuing to be very positive and in our favour. Because it’s going to be important for Government, to continue to maintain a high take-up of private health insurance, because of the growing demand and pressure on the public system, to meet growing healthcare needs. Then we have a growth in the aging population, whereby will go – in terms of Australians aged over 65 - will go from one in seven, to one in four by 2050. So that’s a big change.
And of course the other thing that’s changing, is technology and improved chronic disease management. So more people alive and well for longer, needing more access to healthcare.
Lelde Smits: Final question Phillipa. What is the Company’s outlook for its finances and operations for the following year?
Phillipa Blakey: For the reasons I was just outlining in terms of our external environment, the outlook I see as being very positive. And also because investors and people looking for places to put their capital, understand that the environment is a good place to be. So from a financial point of view, we expect to continue to have good access to capital.
About a year ago, I sort of set what I saw as a stretch goal, being to double in size by 2017. And by size, I was talking about probably a mix of profitability and a mix of size of portfolio. And I think we’re very much on track to achieve that.
Lelde Smits: Thank you so much for the update from Pulse Health today.
Phillipa Blakey: It’s a pleasure, thank you.
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