Dear Stakeholders, 2023 has been a pivotal year for IHH, marking my transition to Group Chief Executive Officer in October. Having previously led IHH Singapore, this new role has been both a privilege and a profound journey of learning and reflection. To understand the business from a wider lens, I have been actively engaging with both internal and external stakeholders across our markets. During these interactions, I was deeply impressed by our respective local management teams, clinicians, medical professionals, and healthcare administrators who are dedicating their lives to the betterment of healthcare. Their unwavering commitment to advancing healthcare is truly remarkable. Our meaningful interactions have formed the basis for a refined group strategy via the ACE Framework, which I will elaborate further, to deliver optimal health outcomes, improve stakeholder value and operate more efficiently – all the essential blocks that will define IHH as a healthcare leader as we dive into the next chapter. During this time, I have also been reminded of why our aspiration to ‘Care. For Good.’ has resonated with me so strongly all these years. While all of us at IHH come from a diversity of backgrounds and cultures, there is one thing that we all have in common – our purpose in touching lives and transforming care. Our shared vision of healthcare is at once inspiring and motivating. It is also a core reason for IHH to have earned the trust of our patients and the public around the world – trust is a cornerstone of our business that we must never take lightly. 2023 in Review Looking back on the past year, I am happy to report that IHH has again delivered a stellar performance both operationally and financially, and all the while uncompromising on our sustainability agenda. Across all markets, we have seen robust growth in local and foreign patients returning to seek treatment at IHH’s hospitals. The Group’s revenue and EBITDA saw double-digit growth on higher patient volumes and improved case mix. FY2023 revenue and EBITDA increased 16% and 15% respectively over FY2022. The Group’s FY2023 PATMI increased 91% to RM3.0 billion. ROE remains a key focus for us. It gives me great delight to share that our ROE has moved into the double-digits, at 10.7% as at end December 2023. However, numbers alone do not paint the whole picture of our success. We are proud to have achieved these operational milestones in our respective markets. Malaysia As we had announced earlier, IHH completed the sale of IMU in the first quarter of 2023 at RM1.2 billion. This divestment is a continuation of the Group’s execution of its strategy to drive capital-efficient growth. The majority of the gains have been fully distributed as special dividends to our shareholders. Additionally, we are expanding our footprint in East Malaysia with the acquisition of Timberland Medical Centre in Sarawak, Kuching. The 82-bed private medical centre is renowned in Borneo for its wide range of medical, surgical and hospital services, further strengthening IHH’s position as a leading healthcare provider in Sarawak by scaling up Timberland’s operation via a new 200-bed tertiary hospital to be constructed in central Kuching. As part of our corporate social responsibility efforts to reduce disease burden on the community, IHH will once again be providing complimentary cancer treatments to some 500 patients nominated by the Ministry of Health Malaysia in 2024, a public-private partnership that started in 2022. Singapore In May 2023, Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital became the first private hospital in Southeast Asia to provide proton beam therapy, a highly precise form of radiation therapy, that effectively destroys cancer cells and causes significantly less damage to nearby healthy tissues. Meanwhile, we launched our first ambulatory care facility in Singapore, Parkway MediCentre Woodleigh, which provides convenient and comprehensive outpatient care to serve community healthcare needs. Mount Elizabeth Hospital has embarked on an extensive three-year refurbishment project to retrofit and rejuvenate the facility. The hospital is not only undergoing a modern facelift, but also reorganising its departments. As part of our strategy to decant lower-acuity departments to adjacent buildings to free up hospital space for higher intensity acute treatments, we have moved selected healthcare services out of our hospitals. For example, the Mount Elizabeth Haematology and Stem Cell Transplant Centre has been relocated to The Heeren in November 2023. The centre provides a comfortable ambulatory setting for patients, while being situated steps away from the acute-care facilities of Mount Elizabeth. This also increases hospital bed availability for higher-acuity patients. Annual Report 2023 27
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