Sales and profits for the healthcare division at Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) rose for both the 4th quarter and full-year 2015.
The Dutch conglomerate, which is looking to deal its legacy lighting business and its Lumileds LED operation, said Philips Healthcare reported sales growth of 14.8% to $3.54 billion (€3.27 billion) for the 3 months ended Dec. 31, 2015. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and amortization grew 22.6% for the quarter, to $559.0 million (€516.0 million) compared with Q4 2014.
For the full year, Philips Healthcare reported sales growth of 18.8% to $11.82 billion (€10.91 billion) and adjusted EBITA growth of 17.0%, to $2.43 billion (€2.24 billion) compared with 2014.
“It’s certainly gratifying to see the rebound, both in orders and sales growth, especially on the healthcare side, but it comes after several quarters of slow growth,” CEO Frans van Houten told reporters today during a conference call. “I don’t think we can declare that the [China] slowdown is over after 1 quarter.”
The picture wasn’t as rosy for the overall business, which reported Q4 losses of-$42.3 million (-€39.0 million), or -5¢ (-€0.05), on sales of $7.69 billion (€7.10 billion), for sales growth of 8.6%.
Full-year profits were $713.9 million (€659.0 million), or 76¢ (€0.70), on sales of $26.26 billion (€24.24 billion). That amounts to a bottom-line gain of 60.3% on sales growth of 13.3%.
PHG shares, which were down 18% over the past 12 months, initially surged 8% in Amsterdam and traded 4.7% higher in early trading.
Material from Reuters was used in this report.
