Tag Archives: health

Georgia Healthcare posts strong 2016 results

TBILISI, FEB. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In its full year results, London-listed Georgia Healthcare said that revenue had risen by 75% and that the company was well- placed for more growth in 2017 and 2018.

The Tbilisi-based company, which is part-owned by Bank of Georgia, did say that results at its insurance business were worse than expected but this didn’t dampen investor enthusiasm for one of the Central Asia/South Caucasus region’s best- performing stocks.

The day after the results, Georgia Healthcare’s share price was up 6.3% at 379p (see Markets on page 12 for more information on Georgia Healthcare’s stock price).

Nikoloz Gamkrelidze, the Georgia Healthcare CEO, said in a statement that a combination of organic growth and acquisitions in the pharmacy and medicines distribution sectors had helped push up revenues to 426.4m lari ($161.5m) and to more than double net profit to 61.3m lari ($23.2m).

“The Group delivered a strong performance in 2016, and remains in good shape to benefit over the next few years from the combination of its position as the largest healthcare services provider, pharmaceuticals wholesaler and retailer and medical insurer in what continues to be a fast-growing, predominantly privately-owned, Georgian healthcare services market,” he said.

Georgia Healthcare listed on the London stock exchange in November 2015 for 170p. It is the largest private healthcare company in Georgia and now operates 13 regional clinics and 28 so-called express clinics. Acquisitions in 2016 in the competitive pharmacy sector has now given is a 29% share of this market.

The one blight on its 2016 results was in the insurance sector which lost 4.9m lari ($1.85m). Mr Gamkrelidze blamed a loss on one contract.

“Our medical insurance business had a more challenging year, particularly reflecting the loss- making impact of one large corporate insurance contract,” he said. “This contract has now expired and has not been renewed.”

Mr Gamkrelidze predicted that the Georgia Healthcare insurance unit will break even in 2017. It has a 35% share of Georgia’s medical insurance market.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 317, published on Feb.17 2017)

Armenia to introduce graphic smoking disease pictures on cigarette packets

YEREVAN, JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The five member states of the Kremlin-lead Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) are preparing to act on new rules that will mean they have to place graphic warnings about smoking on all cigarette packages.

Lawmakers have heralded the move as an important step towards deterring smoking but many people in the notoriously hard-smoking former Soviet Union think it is a pointless piece of bureaucratic self- indulgence.

In Yerevan, Armen Manvelyan, 32, drew hard on his cigarette. It was cold, and snow lay on the streets. Like many Armenian men, he had been smoking since school. All his attempts to quit had failed.

“I don’t think people realise that it is dangerous,” he said. “They just find it really hard to stop smoking. I haven’t see any awful photos on cigarette packs yet but surely they are not going to stop me.”

InRussia the new regulations regarding cigarette packaging have already come into force but Armenia has until November 2017 to enforce them.

From then, cigarette packets will carry photos of smoke-affected organs and the names of diseases linked to smoking.

Smoking is part of Armenia’s culture. According to Alexander Bazarchian, director of the state’s National Institute of Health half of all men smoke and every year 4,000 people die of smoking-related diseases.

Mr Bazarchian said that the new EEU directive was important.

“Using photos of smoke-affected organs is an internationally proved practice to reduce the number of smokers,” he said.

The Armenian health ministry welcomed the reforms and there have already been a number of moves to cut down on the popularity of smoking. This has included banning cigarette advertising and banning smoking in many buildings and areas.

Importantly, though, in many restaurants and bars, where there is no mandatory ban, the air is thick with cigarette smoke. The EEU and Armenian officials want to change this.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)

Analysts are positive on Georgian Healthcare in 2017

JAN. 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian Healthcare, part-owned by Bank of Georgia, has been drawing plaudits. Since its debut on the London Stock exchange in November 2015, the group’s share price has more than doubled to 350p from 170p.

But now analysts are predicting further growth. Stock market analysts throughout 2016 stuck a buy rating on Georgia Healthcare, a valuation that they have stuck with this year. This rating is helped by positive moves from the company itself, including buying the ABC pharmacy at the start of the year. This is the fourth largest pharmacy group in Georgia.

And this, clearly, means well for the company in 2017, according to Georgian Healthcare CEO Nikoloz Gamkrelidze.

“This further consolidates GHG’s position as the leading integrated player in the Georgian healthcare ecosystem, and we look forward to delivering on the expected synergies and targeted growth strategy for the enhanced pharma business,” he was quoted as saying after the deal.

Other pharma and healthcare groups in the region have failed to gain much traction but Georgian Healthcare appears set for another decent 2017.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

EBRD funds cancer treatment in Georgia

DEC. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EBRD issued a €5m ($5.2m) loan to Aversi Pharma, a top-5 healthcare provider in Georgia, for the creation of a new cancer treatment centre in Tbilisi and a clinic in Telavi, in the east of the country. Last year, the EBRD loaned $10.9m to Aversi Pharma to refurbish its hospital in Marneuli, in the south of the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)f

BGEO results on Georgia increase

NOV. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — London-listed investment holding BGEO posted a 24% growth in revenues in Q3, compared to the same period last year. BGEO’s main assets are Bank of Georgia and Georgia Healthcare Group (GHG). GHG accounted for the group’s largest growth rate. In the first nine months of the year, GHG posted revenues for 290.4m lari ($116.6), up 64.8% from 2015.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

WHO declares Kyrgyzstan malaria-free

NOV. 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Kyrgyzstan to be free of malaria, marking the culmination of a 15 year plan to eradicate the disease. Kyrgyzstan had been free of Malaria from the mid- 1960s until the late 1980s and 1990s when migrant workers brought it back into the country from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

WHO says Kyrgyzstan is free of malaria

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — >> I’ve just read that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Kyrgyzstan to be free of malaria. Is this important? What does this mean?

>>Put simply, it means that Kyrgyzstan has done a good job at stamping out malaria. To be declared free of malaria, a country has to prove that there have been no cases for three consecutive years. It’s good PR for Kyrgyzstan and should make it a more attractive destination for tourists to visit. It’s an image thing. Malaria was never a major problem in Kyrgyzstan but publicity from WHO about combating it will go down well.

>> Got it. You say that it wasn’t a major problem but how serious was malaria in Kyrgyzstan, then?

>> It had been more or less stamped out under the Soviet Union, mainly due to industrialisation and living standards rising, but it re-appeared in the 1990s. This was a tough period, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, with the economy performing badly. There were very few jobs in Kyrgyzstan and healthcare was underfunded. Migrant workers brought malaria back to Kyrgyzstan and in 2002, it suffered what the WHO described as a “malaria epidemic” with 2,700 reported cases. Backed by the WHO, the Kyrgyz government ran a malaria eradication strategy which targeted improving healthcare and strengthening awareness of the disease. By 2011, the number of malaria cases reported to have been picked up in Kyrgyzstan was three, dropping to zero in 2012. The campaign has been a success.

>> Does this all mean that Kyrgyzstan has become something of a WHO poster-boy in Central Asia?

>>Not exactly. It still has plenty of issues to deal with such as high rates of alcohol consumption and smoking, as well as HIV and tuberculosis problems. These issues are generally shared with other countries in the former Soviet Union. Public health in the region is always going to be a continual battle.

>> And what about the other countries in the region?

>> Kazakhstan has also been declared malaria-free and the number of cases in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan has fallen dramatically. Both are on course to achieving the WHO’s malaria-free certificate. For Tajikistan, in particular, this would be a major achievement. At its peak in 1997, Tajikistan reported nearly 30,000 new cases of malaria. Last year it reported zero cases and the WHO has said that it is on course to achieve malaria-free status. This is a good news story from Central Asia. Eradicating malaria will save lives and take the strain off the health sector. Of course, it may reappear but for now, malaria is being defeated in the region. The WHO has no data for Turkmenistan.

>> That’s impressive. So, is it all good news for Central Asia’s healthcare system?

>> No. While malaria may be being beaten, other diseases are still a problem. Kazakhstan reports seasonal outbreaks of the bubonic plague. These are localised and transmitted by fleas living off infected rodents. One or two people die each year from the disease but it has never threatened to become widespread. In Tajikistan, polio, which was thought to have been eradicated, was reported in the south of the country in 2011. In total, nearly 500 people were reported to be infected and the WHO declared an epidemic. At least 29 people died before the outbreak was brought under control six months later. In Kyrgyzstan, also, there have been recent public health scares. This included an outbreak of measles in 2015. Out of 22,000 recorded in the wider Europe region that year, a third were in Kyrgyzstan

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

Turkmen President reinforces cigarette ban

NOV. 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov reprimanded the country’s interior minister, Isgender Mulikov, for ineffectively combating the illegal sale of cigarettes. Shortly after the presidential remarks, which aired on state TV, local reporters said that cigarettes disappeared from the shelves of several stores in Ashgabat. Opposition website Alternative News of Turkmenistan said the shopkeepers were responding to a direct order from the ministry. In January, Turkmenistan introduced an informal ban on the sale of cigarettes.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 303, published on Nov. 4 2016)

Two workers die on construction sites in Georgia

OCT. 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two construction workers died in two separate incidents on building sites in Tbilisi within a couple of days, highlighting the often poor levels of health and safety in Georgia. The first man to die fell from a building. The second died from a suspected heart attack. Georgia is going through something of a construction boom at the moment.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 302, published on Oct. 28 2016)

Kazakh President returns back to work

OCT. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president returned to work after three days off because he had apparently caught a cold, his press office said. Part of Mr Nazarbayev’s image is his fitness and virility and it is rare for him to admit to taking any time off work. The cold apparently caused Mr Nazarbayev to skip a meeting of the FSU-focused CSTO group in Yerevan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)