Image plus targets growth after flat year

IMAGE Plus Consultants Limited (IPCL) has agreed to acquire the only private MRI and bone densitometry provider in central Jamaica, while simultaneously removing its largest north coast competitor — a double move the Junior Market-listed imaging company is betting will finally translate years of heavy investment into stronger earnings.

The company has reached an agreement to acquire the assets and brand of Island Radiology, which has branches in Mandeville and Ocho Rios and an agency in Santa Cruz. The deal would give Image Plus an exclusive private position in high-value imaging modalities across central Jamaica while absorbing the patient base of its biggest Ocho Rios rival. The acquisition price was not disclosed, with Anderson indicating that more specific financial details would be made available at the company’s annual general meeting, scheduled for July 14. The acquisition was first signalled in July 2025, ahead of the company’s November 2025 purchase of The Woman’s Place.

Still, the push comes as the company’s latest financial results show limited top-line momentum despite heavy investment. Revenue in the year to February 2026 edged up to $1.092 billion from $1.081 billion, while operating profit slipped to $77.2 million from $79.8 million. Net profit meanwhile, rose to $48.7 million from $43.9 million.

“Growth levels have been modest, more flat, if I’m going to be a little bit more accurate,” Chief Executive Officer Kisha Anderson told the Jamaica Observer in an interview Thursday.

The company’s audited financial statement released Wednesday reflects more than operational challenges. It shows two distinct pressures converged on the business during the year. The first was weather. Anderson said Hurricane Melissa forced approximately three weeks of suppressed patient volumes at the Ocho Rios location, not because the facility lost power but because community dislocation meant patients in surrounding areas could not keep their appointments.

“We powered the location in St Ann by generator even when the rest of the parish was down,” Anderson she added.

The second pressure, was structural. The Ministry of Health cut the subsidy available to patients seeking diagnostic services at private providers, shrinking the Government-linked referrals that had previously underpinned Image Plus’s revenue base. The company had to replace that lost volume with patients meeting the cost directly.

That transition is visible in the balance sheet. Trade and other receivables fell sharply to $150.7 million from $369.8 million, reflecting reduced exposure to government-related payments and improved collections from private patients. Even so, the change in the Government’s policy left the company stabilising rather than accelerating. Costs continued to rise, with administrative expenses climbing to $520.8 million and depreciation reaching $114.3 million, while finance costs remained elevated at $38.5 million.

The company also invested heavily. It spent $132.8 million on equipment during the year and a further $52.4 million on acquisitions — capital outlays that have expanded capacity without yet producing a commensurate earnings lift. The result is a company that has grown in every direction except the one that matters most to investors — the bottom line.

The Island Radiology deal is now expected to help change that trajectory. Anderson said the company should begin to see a noticeable lift in both revenue and profit by the third quarter of its current financial year as the new operations come on stream and patient volumes build. She added that debt servicing on the acquisition is covered by Island Radiology’s existing portfolio volumes, before any ramp-up is factored in, and that margins could improve beyond the base case as higher combined volumes strengthen the company’s purchasing power with suppliers.

“With Island Radiology… we’ll be able to open for longer hours and… take more capacity in terms of patient appointments,” she said.

Anderson added that Image Plus plans to deploy its pool of more than 20 radiologists across the acquired locations, extending operating hours and raising daily case volumes above what Island Radiology could manage with its smaller team.

The acquisition is particularly significant in Ocho Rios, where Image Plus will operate two locations once the deal is completed.

“In Ocho Rios, Island would have been our largest competitor… we now are able to consolidate,” Anderson said, noting that the acquired facility at Eight Rivers, near the centre of Ocho Rios town, draws from a different catchment than its existing White River North location.

Beyond Ocho Rios, the company plans to activate the Santa Cruz agency, which Island Radiology had not been running consistently due to insufficient radiologist capacity. Anderson said she expects that site to reopen around June, serving patients from across St Elizabeth and up to the Westmoreland border.

“We’re going to have the capacity… to have more throughput per day,” she said.

The expansion will be funded through borrowings, though Anderson argued the business can carry it.

“We’re going to initially fund it in debt… the acquisition can pay for itself… so that there’s no pull on our existing profit levels,” she said, framing the self-financing case around the volumes Image Plus intends to drive through the network once its operational model is applied.

“The biggest risk could be that we don’t manage a transition well… or any disruption to relationships… or any unforeseen breakdown in equipment,” she said.

Image Plus is seeking to contain that risk by retaining key elements of the Island Radiology operation, including aspects of its brand and its medical team, while folding administrative functions into the wider group.

Anderson also signalled that the acquisition push is over. With The Woman’s Place completed in November 2025 and the Island Radiology deal agreed in principle but subject to the successful execution of a definitive sale and purchase agreement, she told BusinessWeek that the priority now shifts to performance.

“We don’t plan on acquiring anything else right now… what we’re going to do now is just extract value,” she said.

Image Plus has expanded its footprint, agreed to absorb its largest north coast competitor and secured the only private MRI capability in central Jamaica. Its financials show that scale alone has not delivered stronger earnings. The company is now betting that higher volumes will close that gap — and has named the third quarter as the point at which revenue and profit should begin to prove it right. Shares in the company closed on Thursday at $0.90, up $0.16 or 21.62 per cent, as the market responded to the Island Radiology announcement. The company listed in January 2023 at $2.00.

“I don’t think the share price reflects the value of the entity,” Anderson told BusinessWeek.