IHH Healthcare fears Ukraine crisis may worsen shortages

Bloomberg: IHH Healthcare Bhd, one of Asia’s largest private hospitals operator, is concerned the Ukraine crisis may worsen global shortages even though its main business is unlikely to suffer disruption because of the conflict.

“There are some concerns on supply chain disruptions for us in terms of cost,” IHH Managing Director and CEO Kelvin Loh told Bloomberg TV. “But overall, I see our business being resilient through this time.”

Russia’s attack on Ukraine sparked huge volatility across global commodity markets, sparking fears the crisis will exacerbate global supply chains already stretched thin by the pandemic. Acibadem, IHH’s unit in Turkey, has patient offices in countries including Russia and Ukraine, according to the company’s website.

The group’s diversified earnings base would provide resilience as its main markets are in different phases of the pandemic, Loh said. IHH expects its operations to return to normal this year as patient volumes are expected to increase with the reopening of international borders at countries it operates in despite omicron cases, he said.

“Vaccination rates in countries we operate in are very high. We’re seeing relaxation of distancing measures and borders are starting to reopen,” Loh said. “We’ve seen strong recovery in patients volume. I expect even more of that as we go into 2022.”

IHH said its December-quarter profit profit rose 8% on-year to 453.6 million ringgit, citing growth in patient volume. Net income for 2021 surged more than 500% to a record 1.86 billion ringgit.