Image Plus to rent out half of new HQ

Revealing new details about its pending headquarters project, Image Plus Consultants Limited said the new structure will encompass at least four floors, half of which will be placed on the rental market.

The near three-quarter-acre site identified for the development is being acquired for US$3 million, or about $460 million to $470 million in local currency. The deal is expected to be finalised in August.

Image Consultants CEO Kisha Anderson also told the Financial Gleaner that the company is still looking at design options for the structure with an architectural firm, including whether to incorporate an underground level or raise the building using columns instead to make accommodation for parking.

“We are looking at a 40,000-square-foot building, but we may only need 20,000 square feet. We have a small committee meeting with the architect and the engineers, and so the final details are still being worked on,” said Anderson.

“We will hold details on how we are going to develop that buildout until about the third quarter, but for sure, we will not need all of that space,” she added.

The company is still finalising the budget for the development of the HQ building, the construction of which is scheduled to begin by year end. Its location has not been disclosed.

Image Consultants, a provider of medical diagnostics services under the name of Apex Radiology, expects to move into its new home by December 2024. Its main base at Winchester Road, Kingston, is also to be relocated there.

“We will get into all the details, including the cost and how we will finance the project, at the September board meeting,” said Anderson.

Apex has operated from Winchester Road since November 2006 but has now outgrown the leased space. The new office will provide room for the company to expand on the services currently offered at Winchester.

“You can save the patient both time and money by facilitating them with an interventional suite so patients doing procedures like biopsies or port catheter would no longer need to check into a hotel, and they will also be monitored here,” said Anderson.

“We already offer the service, but this suite will also allow us to expand on that service and to do it 24/7 if we choose ... ,” she advised shareholders last Friday at Image Consultants’ first annual general meeting since its stock market listing in January.

The company, founded in 1996, currently operates in Kingston, Portmore, and Ocho Rios, generating annual revenue of over $1 billion, but while Anderson says Apex has recognised opportunities for its medical services in Mandeville and Montego Bay, it would not be “overcommitting” on further expansion at this time.

“It does not mean that if we see a good opportunity to either acquire something that’s a going concern in those two parishes or to start smaller with one or two modalities that we won’t take advantage of it, but in such a case, we would have to come back to the market for capital,” she added.

For the quarter ended May 2023, IPCL made profit of $64 million, an 11 per cent dip in profit it made when compared to the comparative period of May 2022. Revenue grew marginally, from $281 million to $300 million.

The dip in earnings was partly associated with downtime from its CT scanner, which will either be repaired or upgraded.

Moreover, Image Consultants’ receivables swelled by 146 per cent, to $487 million, indicating that payment for nearly half a billion dollars of services rendered were outstanding.

Anderson sought to reassure shareholders that the issue was under control, saying last week that in the past two months, the receivables had fallen to about half the levels recorded in month.

“The significant increase in receivables is partly related to the Ministry [of Health], but it is also volume based, so the more we grow, the more we are doing for the ministry. The important thing is that we have a written commitment from them to pay, and they have been honouring that commitment,” the CEO said.

“We are comfortable that the Government will pay, and, therefore, we would not need to take an impairment position on their receivable,” added independent director Karl Townsend, who joined Image Consultants’ board on April 12.

karena.bennett@gleanerjm.com