Spire Healthcare Group PLC on Thursday said its annual profit soared on cost savings and lifted its dividend.

The London-based private healthcare firm said pretax profit multiplied to £34.6 million in 2023 from £3.9 million the year before. This was driven by a strong focus on cost management, which saved Spire £15 million in the year, it said.

Revenue increased by 13% to £1.36 billion from £1.20 billion a year earlier. The firm credited an increasing demand for private healthcare, and an increase in admissions, which were up by 5.3% to 276,705.

On the back of the results, Spire Healthcare upped its final dividend to 2.1 pence, up from 0.5p.

Since the year-end, the firm said it has continued to trade in line with management expectations. It added that management remains confident of reaching the medium-term targets.

Chief Executive Officer Justin Ash said: ‘This is a strong set of results, delivered during a period of macroeconomic uncertainty and in an inflationary environment, demonstrating that our strategy and execution is working. The high-quality diagnosis and treatment we provide in our hospitals continued to meet the demand for fast access to care throughout 2023, while we broadened our range of services to meet more of people’s healthcare needs out-of-hospital, in the community and at home. This enabled us to care for over one million patients for the first time, over the year.’

Separately, Spire Healthcare said its Chief Financial Officer Jitesh Sodha has decided to step down after five years in the role. He will leave Spire following its annual general meeting in May. Following this he will continue in the business reporting to CEO Justin Ash until February 2025 to ensure a smooth transition for the company and to support a number of strategic initiatives and projects. He will be replaced by Deputy CFO Harbant Samra as Spire’s new finance chief.

Shares in Spire Healthcare fell 4.5% to 225.86 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

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