EC Healthcare (02138.HK) announced on June 19 that the company expects the following for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024: (i) the profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the reporting period will be no less than 10% lower than the approximately HKD 430 million profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023; and (ii) the after-tax surplus profit will not exceed HKD 25 million for the reporting period, while the net profit for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023 was approximately HKD 107 million.

The Board of Directors believes that the main reasons for the decrease in net profit and profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for the reporting period are: (i) an increase in bank loan interest expense of approximately HKD 44 million compared to the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023 due to the rise in interest rates; (ii) a lower operating leverage for newly established service points compared to the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023; (iii) an increase in depreciation and amortization expenses due to the expansion of new service points; (iv) an increase in operating costs due to inflationary pressures; and (v) a reduction of approximately HKD 43.4 million in subsidies provided by the Hong Kong government's job retention scheme, compared to the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023.