Q&M Dental Group announced that its FY2023 ended Dec 31, 2023 has increased by 2% y-o-y to $11.5 million from $11.3 million last year.
Revenue saw a marginal 1% increment to $182.7 million from $181.2 million a year ago.
For the 2HFY2023 period, earnings saw a significant 323% jump to $6.2 million from $1.5 million a year ago, while revenue gained 6% y-o-y to $95.6 million.
For both the FY2023 and 2HFY2023 periods, the growth was led by the group’s dental and medical clinics, mainly due to higher revenue contribution from Singapore dental clinics, offset by lower revenue contribution from the group’s medical clinics, disposal of the Shanghai Chuangyi in June 2023 as well as unfavourable impact of strong Singapore Dollars against Malaysian Ringgit from the group’s operation in Malaysia.
The growth in revenue was partially offset by lower contribution in the group’s medical laboratory and dental equipment & supplies segment, mainly due to lower revenue contribution from the dental equipment & supplies companies in Singapore and Malaysia offset by higher revenue contribution from the group’s medical laboratory business.
On a geographical basis, Singapore contributed to the group’s revenue and earnings growth, while the Malaysia and China markets offset that growth and saw lower contributions.
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As at end December 2023, the group has 105 dental outlets, two less from 107 dental outlets last year, as well as no more dental outlets in China, compared to just one a year ago.
Meanwhile, unchanged from the previous year, it also has five medical outlets and one dental college in operations in Singapore, 44 dental outlets in Malaysia, a dental equipment & supplies distribution company and a medical laboratory company in Singapore and a dental equipment & supplies distribution company in Malaysia.
As at Dec 31, 2023, cash and cash equivalents stood at $34.0 million.
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The board has declared a second interim dividend of 0.53 cent per share. Along with 0.16 cent paid out in 1HFY2023, the group would have paid out a total of 0.69 cent per share for FY2023, representing a payout ratio of 57%.
Concurrently, the group has announced the results from its 32.8% owned associate company Aoxin Q&M 1D4 Dental, which is also listed separately on the Singapore Exchange S68 (SGX). For the FY2023 ended Dec 31, 2023 period, Aoxin Q&M recorded a loss of RMB 47.3 million ($9.0 million), narrowing the losses by 30.1% y-o-y from RMB 67.7 million.
Excluding impairment loss on investment in an associate, losses for FY2023 would have narrowed by 94.3% to RMB 431,000 from RMB 7.5 million a year ago.
Revenue for the period saw a 33.2% y-o-y increase to RMB 115.9 million, thanks to the recovery from Covid-19 for all business segments of the group.
Dr Ng Chin Siau, group CEO of Q&M says: “We are heartened by the improvement in the numbers overall for FY2023 despite the macroenvironment impact of relatively high inflation rate, high interest rates and a generally challenging business environment. The resilience of Q&M’s core healthcare business is once again being well-demonstrated and is a testament to strategies and processes we have put in place. We will continue to focus on organic growth within the group’s strong network in Singapore and Malaysia and also optimising our existing clinics to obtain better outcomes in service and overall productivity.”
As at Feb 29, shares in Q&M Dental closed at 24 cents, while shares in Aoxin Q&M closed at 5.1 cents.
