| Press Release: February 27, 2006 | |||||
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Profit Up 56% in Record First Half for Pro Medicus
Financial Highlights
Business Highlights
Leading medical IT and e-health company, Pro Medicus Limited (ASX:PME), today announced a record net profit after tax of $2.82 million for the six months ending December 31, 2005. This is an increase of 56.4% on the previous corresponding period or 44% if all R&D costs had been expensed during the period. Revenue from overseas contracts continues to grow rapidly, comprising 17% of the record $5.595 million revenue. This will increase further as revenue from the estimated $10 million Agfa North American deal starts to flow. The company is debt free with cash reserves increasing to $11.6 million and has declared a record interim dividend of 2 cents per share and a special dividend of 0.5c per share both of which are fully franked. "This has been a big six months for us," said Dr Sam Hupert, Pro Medicus CEO. "We commercialised our technology in the US in record time and completed the installation of another 11 practices in Canada while still enjoying strong growth in the Australian market in key areas such as e-health and digital imaging." "Importantly, we are seeing a growing percentage of our revenue coming from overseas - a trend we are sure will continue." Outlook Australia Digital Imaging The move from analogue to digital radiology continues to gain pace. With the successful installation of the system at North Shore Private Radiology, the company now has a key reference site in central Sydney. The company is in discussions with a number of potential digital imaging clients throughout Australia and expects to complete more digital imaging deals in the second half. e-health The growth of promedicus.net, the company’s e-health offering continues with transaction numbers rising by 11.6% to nearly 3 million per annum. The number of doctors registered rose past the 20,000 doctor mark with an increasing number of specialists and non radiology providers now using the system - a trend the company expects to continue. Canada All 22 sites of the AltaPACS group were successfully installed to complete the $2.6 million contract. These sites are progressing well and are being serviced remotely from Australia providing the company with ongoing service fees from this contract. The Canadian market, similar in size to Australia’s, represents an excellent growth prospect for Pro Medicus. In July 2005, the government of Alberta, AltaPACS’ home province allocated CA$189 million to facilitate the adoption of digital imaging in both the private and public radiology sectors. Pro Medicus is working closely with AltaPACS to assess opportunities in that province. Afga North American Contract With the validation of the Pro Medicus technology successfully completed, target marketing by Agfa’s specialised Imaging Centre sales force to the 8,500 US imaging centres and community hospitals, is now in full swing. Interest in the combined Agfa/Pro Medicus digital offering is strong with uptake of the product on or ahead of plan. Other Overseas Markets With the success of its moves into the UK, US and Canadian markets, the company is continuing to look at further opportunities for its technology in these overseas markets. "We have proved that our technology is clearly world class and that we are able to customise it and install it in overseas markets. The product is now working in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK." Dr Hupert said. "Importantly we have also been able to transfer the knowledge to the Agfa US team which, by virtue of their size and geographic distribution, will be able to achieve a far bigger footprint in the North American market than we could have achieved by ourselves. This has freed us up to look at what other opportunities exist for our products in these markets." About Pro Medicus Pro Medicus Limited [ASX: PME] is Australia’s leading medical IT and e-health provider. Founded in 1983, the company provides a full range of integrated software products and services to individual, corporate and public health providers. Over 20,000 doctors are now connected to the company’s ehealth service, promedicus.net, with the number of transactions across the network between GPs and specialists growing strongly. A key growth area for the company is the adoption of its digital technology by radiology providers as they move away from analogue systems. An increasing number of Australian practices are taking up Pro Medicus’ digital technology and the company is now also making substantial inroads into the North American market. In late 2004, the company signed a watershed three-year $10 million deal with Agfa to exclusively license the Pro Medicus Practice Management and digital radiology software products for the large and rapidly growing private imaging centre market in the US and Canada. It subsequently announced a $2.6 million contract with a large Canadian radiology group which was completed in 2005 . For more information:
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