LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Egyptian-focused medical diagnostics firm Integrated Diagnostics (IDH) reported an unaudited net profit of EGP 283m for the first nine months of its trading year, as revenue "accelerated meaningfully" in the third quarter.
Sales grew 41% against the prior quarter to EGP 415,685 in the three months leading to 30 September, moving ahead to £1.10bn at the end of the nine-month mark, itself a 30% improvement.

Gross profit grew 14% year-on-year to EGP 528, despite gross margins slipping from 55% to 48% due to pressure from higher material costs on the back of the devaluation of the Egyptian pound.

Operating profit rose 12% to EGP 391 and net profit gained 41% to EGP 283.

EBITDA gained 15% on the previous financial year's nine-month figure, landing at EGP 437m even after being impacted by higher rents and utilities expenses, and the aforementioned higher material costs.

Foreign exchange loss narrowed considerably throughout the period, down to just EGP 12m from the EGP 48m reported twelve months earlier.

Earnings per share came to EGP 1.81 per share, a 39% increase on the EGP 1.30 announced at the same time in 2016.

IDH chief executive officer Dr Hend El-Sherbini, said, "We continued to expand our geographic footprint in the period with 11% annual unit growth, bringing our total network of labs to 377. Beyond Egypt, our biggest market, our subsidiaries in Jordan and Sudan are growing and performing well, contributing 15% and 3% of 9M2017 revenues, respectively, on rising patient and test volumes. Importantly, the outlook for our Sudanese market has improved considerably with the recent lifting of longstanding US sanctions."

"Whilst challenges persist, we are encouraged as our biggest market of Egypt begins to show signs of turning the economic corner. Meanwhile, our brand equity in combination with our solid supplier relationships continued to underpin our ability to successfully execute our expansion plans through our asset-light model. Accordingly, we reaffirm our 2017 guidance for revenue growth in excess of 20% and EBITDA margins at approximately 40%," he added.

As of 1400 GMT, shares had fallen back 1.055 to $4.25 each.

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