Burjeel Holdings PLC (“Burjeel” or “the Group”), a leading super-specialty healthcare services provider in MENA listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (SYMBOL: BURJEEL; ISIN: AEE01119B224), announced its financial results by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the three-month and nine-month periods ended 30 September 2024.
Burjeel Holdings continued to execute its strategic growth plan during 9M’24, significantly expanding its presence in the UAE, penetrating the fast-growing Saudi Arabian market, and broadening its super-speciality care offerings. These investments position the Group to capitalize on favourable macroeconomic trends and rising demand for advanced healthcare across the region, driving higher patient yields, increased market penetration, and top-line growth.
In Q3’24, the Group achieved key milestones, including the launch of the UAE’s most significant fertility centre, offering comprehensive reproductive healthcare from conception to delivery. Burjeel also enhanced its speciality care by partnering with the Abu Dhabi Stem Cells Center to build an integrated ecosystem for bone marrow transplants, cellular therapy, and advanced care for patients with blood cancer, genetic disorders, and autoimmune diseases.
Additionally, Burjeel expanded in its two key markets, opening 11 new PhysioTherabia centres in Saudi Arabia, bringing the total to 28 branches, and securing agreements with significant insurers. In the UAE, nine new community clinics were announced to improve access to primary healthcare. These facilities are set to cater to over 300,000 outpatient visits per year, facilitating cross-referrals to Burjeel’s secondary, tertiary, and quaternary care hospitals.
Accelerating Revenue Growth & Business Expansion Investments
Burjeel Holdings achieved top-line solid growth of 14.1% in Q3’24, driven by an 11.8% rise in patient footfall and improved patient yield, despite a high revenue base from Q3’23 (up 24% YoY). In 9M’24, revenue increased by 11.7% to AED 3.7 billion, with total patient visits reaching 4.8 million. Key contributors included Burjeel Medical City, Burjeel Specialty Hospital Sharjah, Medeor Hospital Dubai, and Burjeel Royal Hospital Asharej.
Inpatient and outpatient footfall growth in 9M'24 reflected strong demand for high-quality healthcare, especially in oncology, orthopaedics, paediatrics, and women's care. Medical oncology revenue saw significant expansion (up 50% YoY), contributing around 20% of incremental revenue growth. Inpatient footfall rose by 13.3%, boosting bed occupancy to 66%, with over 60,800 surgeries completed (+13% YoY). Outpatient volume grew by 7.9%, supported by new facility expansions and effective cross-group referral capabilities.
EBITDA[1] grew by 5.1% in Q3’24, reaching AED 273 million, despite higher direct costs from ongoing investments in medical oncology to drive future high-yield patient growth. The increase in direct costs also reflects the ramp-up of new assets and higher overheads due to additional marketing efforts to promote the international patient program and support regional expansion.
Excluding the impact of new assets, Q3’24 EBITDA rose by 11.4% to AED 290 million, with a 22.0% margin. The Group recorded AED 16 million in losses from the ramp-up of recently opened facilities, including two-day surgery centres, two medical centres in the UAE, and 28 PhysioTherabia centres in KSA. For 9M’24, EBITDA, excluding one-offs[1] and new assets performance, increased by 7.4% to AED 781 million, with a 21.1% margin.
Net profit before taxes rose 9.8% in Q3’24 to AED 151 million, driven by robust business performance and lower depreciation. For 9M’24, net profit, excluding one-offs and taxes, increased by 7.4% to AED 389 million.
Robust Performance Across Segments
The Hospitals segment remained the primary revenue driver, contributing 88% of total Group revenue in Q3’24, consistent with previous periods. Revenue and EBITDA for the segment grew by 12.9% and 7.6%, respectively, driven by increased inpatient and outpatient footfall, particularly in oncology, pediatric sub-specialities, neurosurgery, orthopaedics, obstetrics & gynaecology, and emergency medicine. During 9M’24, Hospital segment revenue rose 10.5%, while EBITDA increased 8.2%.
The Medical Centers segment achieved strong revenue growth of 14.3% in Q3’24 and 13.7% in 9M’24. Key contributors included speciality care departments such as orthopaedics, paediatrics, obstetrics & gynaecology, and ENT. However, EBITDA growth was moderated by losses from the ramp-up of new centres in the UAE and KSA. Excluding the performance of new centres, Medical Centers' EBITDA increased by 9.8% YoY to AED 101 million in 9M’24.
BMC Strategically Positioned for Patient Growth & Margin Expansion
Burjeel Medical City (BMC) achieved sustainable revenue growth of 16.5% in Q3’24 and 19.3% in 9M’24, driven by solid patient footfall of 30.9% and 28.1%, respectively. This growth was supported by a rising share of outpatient revenue and robust expansion in medical oncology (up 45% YoY), which accounted for 40% of total incremental revenue. The Burjeel Cancer Institute at BMC continued to see increased demand for oncology services, delivering 11,100 medical and surgical oncology procedures (+37.6% YoY) and 6,200 radiation oncology sessions (+32.6% YoY) in 9M’24. Bed occupancy at BMC rose to 60% in 9M’24, an increase of 15 percentage points.
BMC’s EBITDA increased by 15.7% in Q3’24 and 31.2% for 9M’24. Despite ongoing investments in expanding new super-speciality services, the EBITDA margin improved to 16.1% in 9M’24. These investments are expected to drive significant margin growth as capacity utilization and patient conversion continue to ramp up.
Commitment to Conservative Financial Policy
The Group's net debt / pre-IFRS 16 LTM EBITDA[2] was stable at 1.2x as of 30 September 2024, with an average finance cost of 7.2%. The strength of the Group’s balance sheet provides adequate financial flexibility to pursue growth opportunities in the future. The Group intends to pay down and optimize maturing debt to reduce financing costs and extend tenures through various instruments.
Mid-Term Outlook Reiterated, FY'24 Guidance Updated
Burjeel Holdings maintains a positive outlook for its mid- and long-term growth. The group is well positioned to capitalize on favourable macro trends in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, including solid GDP growth forecasts, rapid population growth, and increasing demand for healthcare capacity. We refined our year-end guidance to account for short-term changes in the service mix and accelerated investments in network expansion and super-speciality care promotion.
([1]) Hereinafter, EBITDA is calculated as profit for the period before income tax expense, finance costs, depreciation and amortization, and interest income from related parties.
([2]) Hereinafter, one-offs exclude Employee & BoD performance bonuses for FY’23 results (paid in H1’24) and movement from the changes in the fair value of investments in tradable financial securities, which were made in Dec’23 and then divested in June’24.
([3]) Net debt / pre-IFRS 16 EBITDA is calculated as reported EBITDA less annual lease rental payments, and net debt is calculated as bank debt less cash and bank balances.
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