IHH Healthcare Bhd's pre-tax profit for the financial year (FY) ended Dec 31, 2015 slipped to RM1.218 billion from RM1.221 billion registered in FY14.

However, the group's revenue in the FY15 rose 15 percent to RM8.455 billion versus RM7.344 billion chalked up in FY14, IHH said in the filing to Bursa Malaysia today.

According to Bernama, in a separate statement, IHH noted that it delivered strong financial growth across key metrics and the group remained in a strong fiscal position as at the end of December 2015, with RM2 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

"Net gearing increased to a still-healthy and manageable 0.19 times from 0.08 times as at FY14, on planned capital expenditure and allocation of cash into money market funds and fixed deposit," it added.

IHH Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Dr Tan See Leng said the solid financial performance was despite the ongoing volatility in the global economy.

"We have grown rapidly in the past few years, including undertaking transformational acquisitions to become a leading hospital player in India, making further inroads into the tertiary market in China and entering a new market in Myanmar."

IHH Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Dr Tan See Leng

Going forward, the healthcare provider is expected to enhance service offerings in existing hospitals and continue to extract maximum business synergies.

IHH said it would ensure a continued strong pipeline is brought onstream in 2017, including the opening of new flagship hospitals in Hong Kong and China.