IHH Healthcare Posts 53% Decline in Third-Quarter Net Profit

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia--Malaysian hospital operator IHH Healthcare Bhd. (5225.KU) said Monday that its net profit for the third quarter dropped 53% from a year earlier on higher depreciation, amortization and finance costs following the opening of new hospitals in Hong Kong and Istanbul in March 2017.

Nevertheless, IHH said these costs were in line with expected start-up costs arising from the opening of the new hospitals. Net profit for the July-September period declined to 82.1 million ringgit ($19.9 million) from MYR173.3 million a year ago, IHH said.

Revenue climbed 15% to MYR2.8 billion from MYR2.4 billion a year earlier due to sustained growth in inpatient admissions, strong domestic revenue and the hospitals opened in March 2017, it added.

IHH, the world's second-largest health-care services firm by market value, said it expects to cost pressures on several fronts, including wage inflation from increased competition for talent.

Rising purchasing costs due to a stronger U.S. dollar and higher pre-operating and start-up costs from new operations also loom as challenges, the company said.

IHH said it will work to contain costs to mitigate these challenges.

Shares of IHH ended 0.2% higher at MYR5.65 on Monday ahead of the results.

Write to Yantoultra Ngui at yantoultra.ngui@wsj.com.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 27, 2017 05:18 ET (10:18 GMT)