Dividend withdrawn and potential effects of Covid-19 virus on Q1 2020 and remainder of 2020
The board of Medicover has decided to not propose a dividend to the Annual General Meeting as previously announced in the year-end report.
The Group expects the first quarter revenue and EBITDA to be largely in line with expectations.
The Group expects revenue for second quarter to be comparable to Q2 2019. Furthermore, the Group expects to see a material contraction in second quarter EBITDA as a direct result of restrictions upon the public and ability to maintain services.
The Group expects to see a gradual recovery of EBITDA during third quarter with an expected return to largely normalised trading patterns during the final quarter of the year, subject to current uncertainties in economic recovery.
The Group’s recently issued 3-year guidance stands firm for now, implying that Medicover expects to recover and still perform to that guidance over the 3-year period.
The Group’s revenues and EBITDA from discretionary and elective services will be impacted, in particular in the second quarter, in the wake of public advice to stay away from clinics, general lock-downs and patient’s reluctance to visit for non-emergency conditions, and may continue in subsequent quarters for 2020. There is considerable uncertainty of the scale and duration of these impacts. The group is taking prudent actions to minimize the financial impact where needed and will reduce investment activities over the rest of 2020.
The Group has in excess of €200m of undrawn credit lines. As investment will be prudently curtailed in 2020 the group has sufficient liquidity to manage a further protracted downturn scenario than currently foreseen. During the second half of 2019 the group issued €140m of long-term debt that significantly increased the Groups average debt maturities.
To ensure the Group has the maximum available financial resources to manage the uncertain outlook, as well as to take advantage of opportunities expected to arise in this macro-economic crisis, the Board of Directors have not recommended any dividend payment to the AGM, reversing the intention announced in the Group’s year-end report.
For further information, please contact:
Hanna Bjellquist, Head of Investor Relations
+46 703033272
hanna.bjellquist@medicover.com
This information is information that Medicover AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 23.00 CET on 25 March 2020.
Medicover is a leading international healthcare and diagnostic services company and was founded in 1995. Medicover operates a large number of ambulatory clinics, hospitals, specialty-care facilities and laboratories and the largest markets are Poland and Germany. In 2019, Medicover had revenue around €8442 million and more than 28,000 employees. For more information, go to www.medicover.com
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