The Sonic Healthcare Limited (ASX: SHL) share price is pushing higher on Wednesday after the release of a trading update.
At the time of writing the healthcare company's shares are up almost 3% to $29.76.
What did Sonic Healthcare announce?
After withdrawing its FY 2020 guidance in March because of the pandemic, this morning the company revealed that it is now in a position to provide guidance once again.
Management notes that its trading results in March and April were substantially below forecast, but things have picked up since then. In May, its performance was stronger than expected and in June this positive trend has continued.
As a result of the above, the company expects to report statutory earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) at a similar to level to what it achieved in FY 2019 (excluding the impact of the new lease accounting standard AASB 16). In FY 2019 Sonic reported statutory EBITDA of $1.075 billion.
Sonic's CEO, Dr Colin Goldschmidt, was pleased with the way the company performed during the crisis.
He commented: "Sonic's global leadership teams have responded magnificently to the Covid crisis, making use of established executive experience, trusted culture, team spirit and wide-open Sonic collaboration channels at national and international level."
"Our leaders have shown great flexibility and have adapted rapidly to an entirely new operating environment. Sonic continues to play a crucial frontline role in combating the pandemic, with our laboratories in Australia, the USA and Europe testing thousands of patients per day for Covid-19," he added.
What about FY 2021?
Due to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, Sonic advised that it is not in a position to provide guidance for FY 2021 at this time. Though, it does intend to provide a further update with the FY 2020 results release in August 2020.
