It really hasbeen a pretty bad time for large Health IT companies in Australia.
First we hadthe well-known collapse of iSoft and its purchase by CSC.
Then, rightas the death knell of the Australian Listed Companies reporting season we havehad the following news:
Global Health narrows FY11 loss to $223k
Healthcaresoftware firm Global Health (ASX:GLH) slashed $500k from its FY11 loss, andlifted its core revenue for the period by 12 per cent
- Dylan Bushell-Embling (Computerworld)
- 31 August, 2011 10:04
Healthcaresoftware and services company Global Health (ASX:GLH) narrowed its FY11 loss byover $500,000, due to improving core revenue and lower costs.
The companyreported a net loss for the year of nearly $223,000, from an $812,000 loss inFY10.
EBITDA swungto a positive $170,000, from a $723,000 EBITDA loss a year earlier.
Core revenuefrom the supply of software systems to hospitals and health care providers grew12 per cent to $4.9 million. International revenue more than doubled to about$519,000.
More here:
The losseshave been happening for a while
Global Health 1H loss widens to $511k
GlobalHealth, (ASX:GLH), a e-health solution provider, said its loss widened to $511kin the first half as a result of the strong Australian dollar
- Dylan Bushell-Embling (Computerworld)
- 22 February, 2011 08:40
Lots morehere:
Theannual basics here are a Net Loss of $223,000
TotalRevenue about $5 Million and of that $1.3Million was General and Admin costs.
Wedon’t have the full report but last year the company spent $750,000 onexecutive salaries while having a loss of a little over $800,000 for 2010.
Itwill be very interesting to see how much of this is trimmed in this year’sfinal report.
Itis hard to understand just why this company is actually listed, other than as asource of public funds for the directors to then loose.
Boththe accumulated losses and the contributed equity are about $19,000,000. Thechances of this ever being recovered would have to be remote!
Followingall this we had news from the long deceased, in Australia, ICSGlobal.
ICSGlobal reports maiden $204k profit
IT consultingand e-business company ICSGlobal (ASX:ICS) said solid growth in the UK helpedthe company move to an FY11 profit
- Dylan Bushell-Embling (Computerworld)
- 02 September, 2011 09:06
IT consultingand e-business services company ICSGlobal (ASX:ICS) swung to a maiden profit of$204,000 in FY11.
The companylifted its revenue from continuing operations by 35.6 per cent to $1.7 million,led by a 69 per cent increase in revenue from the UK in local currency terms.The contribution would have been higher were it not for an 18 per cent increasein the value of the AUD against the pound sterling during the year.
In itsfinancial report, ICSGlobal said it is well-placed to expand its UK businessthis financial year.
In Australia,the company concentrated on streamlining its operations, and now no longeremploys any full-time executives here.
Earnings werealso lifted by the first proceeds from the sale of ICSGlobal's AustralianThelma e-health business, worth up to $1.25 million.
More here:
This reportis great fun. The Australian business has been closed down, the former CEO whomanaged accumulated losses of near to $32,000,000 has returned to the board asa Non Exec Director and directors fees have been well over ½ of the profit.
It is justimpossible to conclude either of these companies are being run for the benefitof shareholders in any way at all. Key advice is not invest in sub-par moneyloosing enterprises like this if you value your savings.
At the otherend of the scale we have ProMedicus (ASX:PME).
Here is theirrelease:
Pro Medicus Limited full-year results
Friday 26August 2011
Leadinge-health company Pro Medicus Limited [ASX: PME] today announced its full-yearresults for the year to 30 June 2011.
· Revenue – $14.07m, 27.7% lower than last year’srevenue of $19.46m
· Gross profit – $13.61m, 23.0% lower than lastyear’s gross profit of $17.68m
· Net profit – $0.50m, 87.2% lower than lastyear’s net profit of $3.92m
· Cash reserves – $3.26m
· Company remains debt-free
Pro MedicusChief Executive Officer, Dr Sam Hupert, said the full-year result was in linewith guidance made to the Australian Securities Exchange on 20 May 2011 withrevenue affected by fewer new sales than anticipated. Profit was furtherimpacted by several factors including a number of one-off payments and thestrong Australian dollar with foreign exchange fluctuations reducing thecompany’s profit by more than $1.1m. As a result, no dividend was declared inthe 2nd half.
“The pastyear has been a difficult one – but I am confident that Pro Medicus is turningthe corner,” Dr Hupert said. “We have cleared the decks and taken somefinancial hits and are now in better shape. We believe that last year willrepresent the bottom of the cycle for us and we will move up from here.”
Dr Hupertsaid Pro Medicus continues to invest in new product development and willrelease its new RIS technology platform before the end of the year.
“This is anew product which we think will reposition us as market leaders,” he said.“Importantly, with our new offering, we are able to configure business-specificworkflow and rules to suit clients’ needs without needing to customise theprogram for each client. This will make a huge difference to both us and ourclients. This is a new concept, and a significant advance on what is currentlyin the market. Unfortunately, like many large scale development projects, ithas taken longer to complete than expected but it will be worth it.”
----- EndExtract
Full releaseis here:
A vastlydifferent picture with both cash in the bank, no debt and profits! What achange.
Lastly wemust not ignore Primary Health Care (ASX:PRY). They own a health technologydivision which was the old HCN and which owns Medical Director.
There arestill doing OK with revenues about $50M per annum but the revenue is flat andthe profit margin is dropping. They failed to sell the division recently due tono-one wanting to pay the asking price apparently.
See here:
All in all itis a pretty sorry sight. We really should be doing better than this is a sectorwith a pretty good health system and some pretty good IT developers. I guessmost of the better and more useful action is in the smaller unlisted sector(think Best Practice, Medical Objects, Pen Computing and so on).
David.
