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NORLANDIA HEALTH & CARE GROUP AS
and outlook, Hero is positioned to deliver
solid revenues and healthy profitability
also when the Ukrainian crisis ends. As
everyone else, Hero intensely wishes for
the Russian aggression and brutalities in
Ukraine to end. For as long as it takes,
Hero will remain a mobilized tool for
immigration authorities to host asylum
seekers and migrants
in a respectful and
dignified way.
Aberia has been through an extensive
restructuring in order to stream
-line
operations and focus its portfolio. Loss-
making and non-core operations have
been terminated or divested, while the
core operations are strong
on quality and
reputation, profitable and growing. In
2022 we saw the effects of the
restructuring with four consecutive
profitable quarters, and now reaching
NOK 1,000 million in revenue.
Aberia Sweden consists of Personal
Assistance operations, through the two
entities Marcus Assistans AB and
Østgøteland Assistans AB. Profitability
in
these companies was low in 2022
following the completion of the internal
re-organization.
Aberia finalized a
transaction with the non-controlling
parties, increasing the shareholding in
Child Care and Respite Care services,
along with Family Homes and Personal
Assistance, represent the core operations
in Norway. Combined,
these operations
are generating healthy profitability
and
strong
growth compared to prior year.
In Norway, the
political landscape is
challenging and hampers top line growth
as non-profit organizations are
preferred
in tenders. Our child care operation
in
Northern Norway,
Aurora Omsorg, was
established in late 2019 continue
delivering improvements. We
expect
Aurora to continue the positive
development going forward.
In 2023, following the acquisition of
Frösunda after the balance sheet date,
Frösunda Personal Assistance and
Frösunda Disability will be consolidated
into NHC’s Individual & Family segment,
significantly increasing the segment’s
turnover and providing more stability
in
terms of profitability and diversification
.
We regard the consolidation
as a perfect
fit combining highly complementary
competencies across the organizations
in
Norway and Sweden, with unrealized
synergy potential, and have
great
expectations for the segment going
The personal assistance market in
Sweden recently experienced a shock
related to Humana Assistans AB having
its license to operate revoked
in January
2023, after a two-year inspection
performed by the Swedish Health and
Social Care Inspectorate (IVO). Aberia’s
personal assistance was subject to
inspection by IVO in 2022, which resulted
in a retained license for Aberia and thus
continued operations. Over time, both
Frösunda and Aberia have performed
extensive work to improve
internal
processes and routines to mitigate risks
and strengthen quality,
and currently,
there are no ongoing inspections of our
operations.
The consequences of Humana’s revoked
license are substantial, affecting
2,000
disabled persons and 11,000 employees,
and NHC is closely monitoring the
situation. If required, our Swedish
operations have both the capacity and
willingness to quickly bring on board and
help new customers in need of
assistance. A standard review
of each
customer will be carried out in these
cases, fully in-line with existing guidelines
and procedures. In Sweden, a large
majority of those entitled to personal
assistance choose private providers
and
NHC considers the recent development
highly regrettable, considering the
negative impact it has on many disabled
people in need of security and stability in
life.
2022 was another solid year for the Real
Estate segment, although being down on
2021. During 2022 we have continued to
develop our portfolio of properties and
successfully secured financing for further
growth. Although we acknowledge the
challenges the overall real estate
market
is currently experiencing, we believe we
are well positioned to maintain a healthy
profitability level going forward.
Besides
cash flow and profitability,
most
importantly,
we expect the segment to
support NHC’s operating companies
through access to good properties and
solid long-term operations.
FINANCIAL RISK
Overall view on objectives and strategy
The Group is exposed to financial risk in
different areas, including exchange
rate
risk, market risk, credit risk and liquidity
risk. The Group is continuously assessing
these risks.
Market risk
The Group's business, results of
operations and financial conditions
depend principally upon conditions
prevailing for childcare, individual and
family (i.e. private foster
homes, assisted
living, user controlled personal assistance
and rehabilitation) and elderly care
services in the Nordic region. The
individual and family segment is highly
dependent on single orders made by the
municipalities, and to some extent the
North-European region, in particular,
public policies and the political climate.
Furthermore, the demand for the
Group's services is dependent on inter
alia the birth rates and the longevity in
the regions where the Group operates.
Integration services will in addition to
political decisions be affected by
geopolitical situations which may lead to
reduced number of immigrants and
asylum seekers. Demand for
private care
services may decrease depending on a
number of demographic and economic
factors, including (but not limited to)
birth rates, immigration, need for
elderly
Up until the Ukrainian war,
the intake of
immigrants and asylum seekers
was very
limited in all countries in which the
Group operates. If these countries
implement politics which directly or
indirectly limits the intake of immigrants