Asiri Surgical Hospital PLC has completed what its Chairman, Mr. Ashok Pathirage, called "one of our best years since inception," despite a dip in the bottom line largely on account of finance cost on heavy borrowings for expansion.

Pathirage reported that the hospital had sustained 100% occupancy throughout the year ended March 31, 2008 with its services utilized to the maximum.

"Demand continues to out pace supply and, as a result, we find that our expansion and development plans are astute and timely," he said.

Pathirage also announced that they had plans to increase the bed capacity of the hospital by 50 and also include four new operating theatres as well as a modern state-of-the-art Cardiac Center as part of their second phase of development due for completion later this year.

The Asiri Heart Center which will be completed very shortly has been their most ambitious venture under the Asiri Surgical umbrella, he said claiming that this would be the country’s foremost cardiac care center offering the most modern innovations, technolog6y procedures and specialist care.

"The Asiri Heart Center will have a fully equipped dedicated Coronary Care Unit with ten beds in addition to forty rooms and a surgical ICU with advanced monitoring systems including telemetry," he said.

"A fully fledged cardiac investigation unit and facilities for cardiac surgery up to available international standards will also see the latest in cardiac diagnostics such as a flat panel cardiac catheterization laboratory for angiography and angioplasty procedures."

The year under review had seen the company boosting revenue 25% to Rs.896.4 million, but the after-tax profit dropped to Rs.110.3 million from the previous year’s Rs.220.7 million.

Pathirage explained that high finance cost had taken its toll on the bottom line, surging from Rs.4.2 million the previous year to Rs.126.8 million during the period under review on account of the cost incurred in acquiring 32.71% of Asiri Central Hospital funded by loans amounting to Rs.727 million.

He explained that the spiraling interest rates were beyond their control as these reflected the macro economic environment they had to work within, adding that "profitability in isolation does not reflect the true picture."

"We do believe strongly that our fundamentals and strategies reflect solid growth and therefore remain extremely confident that the hospital will continue its upward performance levels, managing costs efficiently and giving returns to shareholders very soon," he said.

Pathirage was confident that being a BOI venture and given the success achieved thus far, the company will within the next few years begin showing the required returns.

Asiri Surgical has a stated capital of Rs.982.3 million and retained earnings of Rs.222.2 million in its books. Currently it carries Rs.692.9 million interest bearing loans and borrowings and non-current loans and borrowings of Rs.398 million.

The company’s net assets per one-rupee share was up to Rs.2.12 from Rs.2.06 a year earlier and the share traded at a high of Rs.13.75 and a low of Rs.6.50 during the year. This compared to a trading range of Rs.3.90 to Rs.2.50 the previous year.

Asiri Hospitals PLC with 28.72% and the Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation (General Fund) with 20.01% are the two biggest shareholders followed by Mr. D.K. Subasinghe (15.51%) and Softlogic International (Pvt) Ltd. (4.33%).