KEY POINTS:
Partial offer target Abano Healthcare Group is forecasting revenues of $121 million to $125m for the year to the end of next May, compared to $89.5m in the latest full year.
The forecast for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation was $21.5m to $23m, compared to $13.9m, and the forecast for net profit after tax $6.8m to $7.5m, compared to $5m.
Last month Masthead, the investment company of Christchurch's Stewart family, said it intended to make a partial offer for Abano at $3.85 per share, with the aim of increasing its holding to 51 per cent.
A year ago Masthead announced that it had bought a 19.9 per cent stake in Abano, paying a price of $1.55 a share.
Abano said today that since the notice of Masthead's partial takeover offer it had received approaches from other parties expressing interest in it.
The board had and would allow suitable parties to undertake due diligence to prepare alternative propositions when that was considered to be in the interests of the company and its shareholders, Abano said.
"However, the board has not determined that it is necessarily in the best interests of shareholders that a change of control should occur."
Abano chairwoman Alison Paterson said all businesses across the group performed well in the first quarter of this financial year.
In addition, benefits from growth strategies in place for the group's dental, audiology and radiology sectors continued to provide further improvement to margins and bottom line returns.
"Our new structure and our focus on the four key divisions of audiology, dental, diagnostic and rehabilitation, has enabled the company to make high quality investment decisions which are now bearing fruit," Mrs Paterson said.
"As the intrinsic demand for healthcare continues to increase, so do the opportunities in the private healthcare market.
"We are well positioned to take advantage of this increased demand and expect to see shareholder returns continue to increase as we grow through expansion and acquisition."
It was important that shareholders appreciated Abano was in the early stage of a significant growth phase, she said.
Benefits of the reinvestment of proceeds from the sale of Eldercare business into the four Abano business platforms was only now beginning to produce the types of returns anticipated.
The expansion potential in Australia, where Abano was focusing on establishing a strong platform in Queensland in preparation for rolling out its model into other states, was considerable, Mrs Paterson said.
An update on the company's performance would be provided to shareholders at Abano's annual meeting on November 9.
Abano's share price closed at $4 on Friday.
- NZPA
