MONTRÉAL, Aug. 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Premier Health of America Inc. (TSXV: PHA) (the “Corporation”), a leading Canadian Healthtech company, announces it has filed its Condensed Interim Consolidated Financial Statements and Management Discussion and Analysis for its third quarter ended June 30, 2022.

Summary

• The Corporation had revenues of $22.4M for the 3-month period compared to $18.6M for the same period in FY2021, an increase mainly attributable to the consolidation of recently acquired Canadian Health Care Agency (“CHCA”) over part of the period.
• The 24.4% gross margin for the quarter was close to the Corporation’s 25% target.
• EBITDA⁽¹⁾ for the quarter was $1.6M compared to $1.3M for the same period in FY2021.
• Net income was $0.4M compared to $0.1M for the same period in FY2021.

“We perceive divergences in provincial healthcare policies and management strategies and see geographical diversification as an important element of stability and organic growth,” said Martin Legault, CEO of Premier Health. “We believe our recent investments in management and technology infrastructures will facilitate integration and leverage operations in other provinces.”

Third Quarter 2022 Results Highlights

Business Highlights

• The Corporation provided 254,377 hours of services during the quarter.
• The Corporation had revenues of $22.4M representing an increase of $4.8M from the last quarter, linked to the consolidation of the CHCA acquisition completed over the period.
• Compared to the last quarter, administrative expenses were stable over the period with an increase in salaries and rent related to the consolidation of CHCA that was counterbalanced by lower non-recurring expenses. This translated in an adjusted EBITDA of $1.6M ($1.3M for the same period in FY2021) and a net income of $0.4M ($0.1M for the same period in FY2021).

Healthcare workforce solutions

During the third quarter our Premier Soin business unit’s revenue remained stable while Code Bleu’s business unit revenues decreased by 5.7%. The decrease in revenue at Code Bleu was mainly due to a temporary shift in the business mix during the quarter as well as absenteeism, a situation previously experienced by Premier Soin in the second quarter. Medical personnel are in recuperation mode and we expect a soft summer in terms of hours billed. This exodus of burnt-out health care workers has led to a surge in temporary closure of emergency rooms in Quebec and Ontario. Realisation of this situation by health care authorities and decision makers in Quebec has led to the government dropping some of the restrictions imposed by the ministerial orders in 7 regions of Quebec, and special measures in Ontario as well. Mandatory overtime is also targeted by nurse associations and unions as a major cause of frustration for the healthcare personnel. Taking all this into consideration, we expect an eventual stabilization in hours billed in urban centers, but little headway will be achieved before the fall provincial elections. Our northern regions business units performed in line with our expectations. Since the start of the fiscal year Premier Health Nordik signed contractual arrangements with eleven hospitals, mainly in Northern Ontario and we anticipate a positive impact of these contracts on the revenues before year-end.

Acquisition of Canadian Health Care Agency

We completed our first important acquisition outside of the province of Quebec on April 19. Canadian Health Care Agency is based in Cambridge, Ontario, and provides services in Northern Ontario, Nunavut and Northern Manitoba. The acquisition of CHCA starts our expansion outside of the province of Quebec and consolidates our market position in Canada’s northern regions. CHCA currently has over 200 active and specially trained Registered Nurses and Nurse Practitioners in its organization. The Cambridge based agency provides us with a good management infrastructure in Ontario that will serve as a base to continue our expansion in this province. This is a strategy we are expecting to follow in other provinces as well. We anticipate over 25% of our revenues to be generated outside of Quebec going forward.

About Premier Health

Premier Health is a leading Canadian Healthtech company that provides a comprehensive range of outsourced services solutions for healthcare needs to governments, corporations, and individuals. Premier Health uses its proprietary PSweb platform to lead the healthcare services sector digital transformation to provide patients with faster, cheaper and more accessible care services.

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS financial measure and is defined as net earnings (loss) before finance costs, income tax expense or benefit, and depreciation and amortization, adjusted for share-based compensation, changes in fair value of share warrant obligations, foreign exchange (gain) loss and other non-recurring expenses.

For Further Information Please Contact:

Mr. Jean-Robert Pronovost
Vice-President, Corporate Development
Premier Health of America Inc.
jrpronovost@premierhealth.ca / 1 800 231 9916

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION:

This press release contains forward-looking information based on current expectations. Statements about the date of trading of the Corporation’s common shares on the Exchange and final regulatory approvals, among others, are forward-looking information. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by such statements. The Corporation assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. These factors and others are more fully discussed in the filings of the Corporation with Canadian securities regulatory authorities available at www.sedar.com.