Revenue, earnings fall for newly-demerged Optima Health

(Sharecast News) - Corporate health and wellbeing solutions provider Optima Health reported an 11% decline in revenue in its interim results on Wednesday, to £50.8m. The AIM-traded firm said adjusted EBITDA fell 12% year-on-year to £8.7m, reflecting the revenue decline, while adjusted operating profit and profit before tax were £6.7m and £6.6m, respectively, both down more than 12%.

Statutory results were impacted by one-off costs related to Optima's September demerger from Marlowe, including £2.8m in demerger expenses.

Net debt, excluding lease liabilities, was substantially reduced to £0.6m from £36.4m following the demerger and associated financial restructuring.

Optima completed the integration of acquired businesses earlier in 2024, reducing restructuring and integration costs to £1.1m, with no further costs expected in the second half of the 2025 financial year.

The group secured £3.6m in annualised new business contract wins during the reporting period, with an additional £3.1m signed or in the preferred bidder stage post-period.

It said its new business pipeline stood at £11.5m in annualised revenue.

Operational highlights included the milestone achievement of 10,000 patients in a pilot program for the Digital Assessment Routing Tool (DART), a musculoskeletal triage software being trialed within the NHS.

The group said it continued to build on its scalable platform with a diversified client base, focusing on synergies, improved margins, and contract expansions to drive future growth.

Looking ahead, Optima said it was poised for organic growth and strategic expansion, reporting that it was in late-stage negotiations for a bolt-on acquisition, with further opportunities under discussion to accelerate growth.

"We are proud to report Optima Health's maiden interim results as a publicly listed company," said chief executive officer Jonathan Thomas.

"The business delivered a robust performance in the period, completing the integration of recently acquired businesses, demerging from Marlowe and successfully listing on AIM whilst continuing to build the pipeline for future growth.

"I am very thankful to our team who have delivered these significant undertakings, giving me great confidence that the business can now proceed to deliver its strategic objectives."

Thomas said that as "the UK's leading provider" of occupational health and wellbeing solutions, Optima's primary focus was on organic growth in its core market.

"Alongside this, we will continue to deliver targeted mergers and acquisitions to accelerate growth, whilst pursuing opportunities to enter complementary adjacent markets and further improving the quality of margins.

"Underpinning all this is a large and growing market, and our dedicated employees, which will enable us to continue to win new business to expand our digitally-enabled, high quality offering."

At 0948 GMT, shares in Optima Health were up 0.75% at 156.16p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.