Assura welcomes NHS changes

06/08/2008 Robert Tyerman

Healthcare group Assura says government health service plans will work in its favour despite an expected trading loss.

The fully listed company has been changing from a medical property investor and developer into a property-backed medical and pharmacy services provider through partnerships with general practitioners. In a first quarter trading statement, chief executive Richard Burrell argues Lord Darzi’s recent review on the future of primary healthcare ‘fully endorses’ the company’s own strategy and suggests recent Department of Health pronouncements ‘indicate the market will be opened up faster and wider’.

By last Friday, Burrell says Assura’s ‘GPCos’ had 22 medical services scheduled to be commissioned by the end of the month, with ‘a pipeline of a further 70 either awaiting accreditation or the outcome of tenders’. He says turnover is growing fast at the company’s expanding chain of pharmacies, though budgeted annual turnover will fall by £6 million because, after due diligence, Assura decided not to proceed with two planned pharmacy acquisitions.

Having made a sharply reduced £3 million pre-tax in the 15 months to March on turnover up from £16.1 million to £40.7 million, the company says it is now on track for a ‘budgeted trading loss’ for the present financial year. The shares have fallen from 249.5p last summer to 84p now, valuing the company at £197.5 million.

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