• Result for the quarter is GHP's best first quarter so far
• Organic growth of over 10 percent
• Rolling 12-month sales revenues exceed SEK 1 billion for the first time
• Work on the action programme continues
• Decision to expand Gildhöj in Copenhagen 

• Sales revenues increased to SEK 278.7 million (260.8)
• Organic growth amounted to 10.7 percent (11.0)
• EBITDA amounted to SEK 25.8 million (18.2)
• EBITDA margin amounted to 9.3 percent (7.0)
• Result after tax (EAT) amounted to SEK 14.0 million (8.2)
• Result per share amounted to SEK 0.18 (0.12)

• Trygg-Hansa chooses GHP Vårdsamverkan as total provider for musculoskeletal injuries
• Decision to increase capacity at GHP Spine Center Göteborg  

CEO's comments
We are delighted to have broken the record for a specific quarter's results for the second quarter in a row. This shows that all our joint efforts in the Group are truly having an effect. In the Nordic region we have taken several steps forward and business planning is considerably better than the same period last year. International has also made good progress. Vårdsamverkan is in a very exciting development phase, in particular due to our new collaboration with Trygg-Hansa.

In the Nordic region many of the measures we took during last year continued to have an effect. We have increased the focus on the day-to-day business operations, made a number of savings and sold two unprofitable businesses. We now continue to develop the business, in both the short term and the long term. In the short term we still have some businesses where we must continue the work on our action and development plans and we must continue to maintain a high level of cost consciousness in the whole Group. We are also investing for the future: during the summer and autumn, we will extend the premises in both Gothenburg and Copenhagen. In Stockholm we have opened Urologcentrum at Odenplan, which has made a strong start. Furthermore, we have invested a lot in strengthening the culture and developing our employees. An example of this is that 15 or so future and current managers are taking part in an ambitious training programme in leadership, economics and strategy. We very much believe in having managers who also have medical competence, but then we need to supplement their medical education with this kind of knowledge.

In International, in consultation with our customer in the UAE, we have made a change for 2018 in how we are paid for running our four hospitals. There was already a bias towards the fourth quarter as several of the KPIs and deliverables that we are assessed on have only been evaluated at the end of the year. We now anticipate that even more will be evaluated and delivered less frequently, which means that our revenues for the current quarter are lower. This is merely a question of distribution over the year. For the fourth quarter the assessment of our clinical and organisational work was the best that we have attained since we took over operation of the hospitals. Furthermore, we expect to stay at a higher level this year than what we had last year. It is most gratifying to follow how these four hospitals are improving and how we have been able to introduce a Swedish way of working in many areas. In addition, our business development team continues to work on exciting projects in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, but it is difficult to foresee exactly when something will materialise.

In Vårdsamverkan we have taken a large step forward thanks to our new agreement with Trygg-Hansa. The new agreement means that the segment on a rolling 12-month basis should have sales of SEK 100 million as from this summer. With these sales we will attain a size that will give us the financial scope to carry out all the exciting development that we know can increase both efficiency and service for our patients.

A large part of the care that Vårdsamverkan handles is carried out by GHP's own clinics, which has a positive financial effect on these businesses. The net result in Vårdsamverkan is the difference between what payment we manage to obtain from the insurance companies to run health care and the costs for purchasing and developing this care.

We are now starting the intensive work of continuing to develop what we have already built up. For example, we will launch our own app, which combines physical health checks with encouragement to engage in an active and healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, all patients will fill in dynamic forms that improve triaging and make subsequent care more efficient. We will further develop the care chains and more patients will gain access to care online. When all this is in place the health care we offer will be unique, as we will have created coherent care throughout Sweden, with the focus on the total experience and the total costs for providing care. We are working on, amongst other things, all the digital opportunities that exist, increasingly in the form of externally developed solutions that can be adapted to our needs.

This first quarter has given us a good start to 2018. We are now continuing to develop and strengthen our existing business in the Nordic region and in International at the same time as we are now entering an intense build-up phase in Vårdsamverkan and are continuing to work on winning more assignments in International.

24 April 2018
Gothenburg
GHP Specialty Care AB (publ)
The Board