By Kristy Dorsey
Healthcare billing company Craneware has reported an increase in revenues and profits for the six months to the end of December in a performance that chief executive Keith Neilson said “underlines the potential” for future growth.
Headquartered in Edinburgh, Craneware sells into the US market where about a quarter of that country’s hospitals use its billing and financial management software. Despite “headwinds” caused by disruption from the pandemic, Mr Neilson said the company is continuing to make strategic and financial progress.
Revenues for the first half of the financial year were up 6 per cent on the same period 12 months earlier at $38 million (£27.3m). Earnings rose by 5% while pre-tax profit was up 3% at $9.9m (£7.1m).
New sales – those to new customers, or of new products to existing customers – were more than 30% ahead of the same period a year earlier, with sales of Trisus applications growing to approximately 16% of new sales.
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The cloud-based Trisus platform provides the means to collect, verify and correct data so hospitals can improve their financial and operational performance. Craneware is in the process of migrating its core ChargeMaster Toolkit and Pharmacy ChargeLink products to Trisus, a goal it expects to achieve within the next year.
With US spending on healthcare hitting $4trillion for the first time in 2020, Mr Neilson said there remains plenty of scope for further growth. One of the advantages of Trisus is that it opens up the opportunity to sell more software applications that can help customers cut their administration costs. Mr Neilson estimated this could lead to a ten-fold increase in license fees collected per customer.
“We think these results underline the potential the company has got to further accelerate our growth,” he said. “Momentum has definitely built up and we expect that to continue.”
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Shares in AIM-listed Craneware closed unchanged yesterday at 2,090p. The company has proposed an interim dividend of 12p per share, up from 11.5p a year ago.
In his statement issued along with the results, Mr Neilson said the company remains confident in its prospects despite the challenges of the wider macro environment.
“Managing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has clearly been the top priority for all healthcare-related organisations over the past year and will continue to be the case for many months to come, providing front-line care while adjusting to new methods of healthcare delivery and ensuring their financial operations can respond,” he said.
“Our customers continue to take steps to create further resilience across their financial operations and we are committed to providing them with the tools and insight to do so.”
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