...July 5, 2023 Mehilainen's 2022 results were in line with our expectations. The company's slightly higher revenue growth of about 16.7% was driven by solid underlying demand across both health and social care services segments that offset profitable COVID-19 testing revenue. In the meantime, S&P Global Ratings-adjusted EBITDA (after exceptional and normalized costs and IFRS 16) stayed flat at about 261 million due to high inflation, staffing shortages, and expected reduction in COVID-19-related sales following updated government guidance on testing, among other challenges. Similar to the broader industry, Mehilainen did not experience an automatic cost pass-through with inflation, which affected EBITDA. As a result, S&P Global Ratings- adjusted (gross) debt to EBITDA stood at 6.9x, in line with our base case, due to the anticipated acceleration in acquisitions (164 million outflows), which were mostly debt funded, as the company continues to strategically diversify outside Finland (about...
