I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Michael Knaap, CEO. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Matt, and good morning, and thank you all for joining us for our group's results presentation for the first half of FY 2022. Our CFO, Malik Jainudeen, also joins me, and will be slowly stepping us through the details of our financials. By way of background, Monash IVF is a market leader in providing reproductive care in our core assisted reproductive services, diagnostics, genetics, and pathology services with a growing network of 48 IVF and women's ultrasound clinics and service centers across Australia and expanding in Southeast Asia. Our experienced and capable team includes 132 doctors and in excess of 600 scientific nursing and support staff. I would again like to take this opportunity to thank every one of our team for their unrelenting patient-first mindset and continued agility in order to thrive during the pandemic.
This focus and effort of our people is the reason we are delivering another positive result today and continue to have an optimistic outlook for the future. I'd now like to touch on the key points of our first half in financial year 2022, which are represented on slide 3 of the presentation. Our underlying profits were ahead of guidance, underpinned by market share gains and record ARS industry growth on the back of really strong comparisons in the previous corresponding period. One might say the IVF baby boom continues. Our adjusted or underlying NPAT of AUD 13.4 million increased by 11.7% on the PCP and was well ahead of our profit guidance provided at our AGM.
There was continued IVF industry volume growth of 3.6% for the first half in 2022 on the back of 28.3% growth in the previous corresponding period, highlighting the sustainability of the all-time high industry volumes. Pleasingly in Australia, we grew our stimulated cycles by 6.6%, outstripping the market growth and gaining further market share of 0.7%. We also had a buoyant new patient pipeline demonstrated by 11% growth in our Australian new patient registrations in the first half of 2022, which will support growth in the second half of this financial year. We have expanded our fertility specialists with four new fertility specialists attracted during the first half of FY 2022 in Australia and another four experienced fertility specialists in Singapore.
The specialists in Singapore will support the commencement of a new Singapore IVF clinic in the second half of this financial year, whereby we anticipate in excess of 200 stimulated cycles in year one, given the caliber of the specialists we have recruited. Our balance sheet strength is a strong enabler to drive organic and non-organic strategic growth in the future, while we also increased our dividend to AUD 0.022 per share and improved all of our capital return metrics. I wanted to touch on the continued attractive industry fundamentals as behavioral shifts support volume growth into the future as we look at slide 4. There continues to be an advancement in maternal age as a long-term trend as people have delayed starting a family, which continues to increase infertility rates.
Although there has been significant increase in IVF demand, our average maternal age of 37 has remained constant since the start of the pandemic, which underlines continued growth in the industry. We believe the ongoing pandemic has changed the mindset in the community with greater focus on family, health, and well-being. This continues to drive a redirection of priorities towards creating and extending their families into the future. To support that, we had a 9% increase in new patients having stimulated cycles following a 40% increase in the previous corresponding period, which is well above historical industry growth. Growth in our service offerings and advances in technology driving improved outcomes and appeal to the fertility value proposition. There is good growth potential in donor, social patient treatments, and genetic services into the future.
Our significant recent improvement of 4.6% in the clinical pregnancy rate over the last three years is a testament to the improved value proposition for patients. There was an increase in government support from November 1, 2021 for patients who are carriers of known genetic disorders, and we anticipated further funding of broader genetic testing services in the near future. These increases, along with the current stable government funding regimes for both IVF and ultrasound services, will support volume growth and patient affordability into the future. We now take a look at slide 5 to focus on the broader ARS Australian market, where demand for services in Australia continues at record highs.
The left-hand graph, which reflects the quarterly growth in stimulated cycles, shows that there was significant growth experienced in quarter one and quarter two in FY 2021 as industry volumes rose rapidly. In the first half of this financial year, we matched those high comps from the PCP, which grew by 23.8%, whilst also growing by 3.6%, demonstrating the sustainability of the all-time high treatment numbers. The right-hand graph, which is the number of Australian cycles per year, if you would note the step change in volume in calendar year 2020, with the growth and industry momentum continuing into calendar year 2021, which delivered a growth rate of 18.6%.
Given the industry dynamics previously outlined, our view is that the new industry baseline for stimulated cycles has been set, and growth can continue into the future at 2%-3%. Having a clear picture of the Australian IVF volumes, I would just like to cover off on more details around our market share on slide 6. In our key markets, our stimulated cycles increased by 6.6% versus industry growth of 3.6%. We effectively doubled the industry growth rate. This led to market share gains of 0.7%, achieving 20.8% market share. The key contributing factors to our market share gains include the creative marketing campaigns and substantial marketing investment that is continuing to grow both our short-term and long-term patient pipeline.
The new fertility specialists that we have managed to recruit in the last 12 months are all developing their referral and patient base. We had incremental contribution from our new Sydney CBD flagship clinic in New South Wales that continues to build good momentum. Furthermore, our FET market share increased by 1.6% versus the previous corresponding period with 19.9% market share. This demonstrates the strong returning patient pipeline. I would now like to welcome our CFO, Malik Jainudeen, to take us through the financial results for the year.
Thanks, Michael, and thank you everyone for attending the call today. Turning over to slide 8. I've illustrated our build-up of revenue compared to last year, which reflects an 11% increase in our revenue. Now, if we follow the bubbles from left to right, you'll see that from the pure market size, growth in the market contributed an extra 2% of revenue of AUD 2.1 million. The next bubble illustrates how pleased we are with our market share growth in six months, which added a further AUD 2.1 million or 2% of revenue, which reflects the 0.7% market share growth Michael mentioned.
There was further growth from pricing, where our average pricing increased by 4.4%, reflecting our year-on-year price increases of 2%-3% across all our domestic markets. We also achieved further pricing benefit from a lower number of discounted cycles, particularly to patients that were impacted by the NPRGT program. Following this outcome, we're extremely confident that we can continue to put our prices up going into FY 2023. Our international clinic revenue declined by AUD 0.5 million, which was on the back of a 15% improvement in revenue in the second quarter, following a fairly weak first quarter. Now, ultrasound business revenue were largely maintained, but as I'll call out on the next slide, we've had substantial challenges in the cost base given the current environment.
We had good contribution from our growing day surgery income as the Sydney CBD day surgery activity continues to build. Just closing on this particular slide, you'll notice that we've received AUD 1.8 million of insurance income related to the NPRGT program, which offset approximately AUD 1 million of costs in the first half. Turning over to slide 9. Our adjusted NPAT was AUD 13.4 million, which was up by almost 12% on last year. On the back of the 11% increase in revenue, our Adjusted EBITDA grew by 9%, which was driven by the strength of our domestic IVF businesses. Considering how well our IVF businesses fared during the first half, the result could have been stronger considering the weakness in the international business and the ultrasound business.
Our ultrasound business was heavily impacted by health and safety measures, which had a direct impact on utilization of our sonographers, our rooms, and our machines. In addition, across our group, we've incurred an additional AUD 700,000 of employee leave balances due to lower leave taken and a AUD 400,000 increase in sick leave. This obviously has a direct impact on profitability, but what's pleasing is that it is a short-term impact, and once the environment stabilizes, we should expect to see further profit growth. We also called out a AUD 1 million increase in our insurance, which is directly and inherently attributable to the current proceedings on Monash IVF. I think overall, from a profitability perspective, we're extremely pleased with the result given the strength of our core domestic IVF businesses, which could withstand the short-term pressures presented by the pandemic.
Going to slide 10, illustrating our cash flows. You know, as I say, every year or every six months, this business continues to build a huge amount of strong cash flow. The conversion of EBITDA to pre-tax cash flow is at 83%, which is consistent with last year and is expected to be close to 100% by June. Free cash flow generated was AUD 9.7 million, up 52% once adjusted for JobKeeper received last year.
CapEx for the period was AUD 3.6 million, which was focused on growth assets, providing greater capacity in our labs and commencement of our new and exciting clinic in Melbourne. CapEx for the second half is expected to be around AUD 10 million-AUD 15 million, considering, as I mentioned, the exciting project in Melbourne, relocation of our Darwin and Penrith clinics, and a further exciting project in the Gold Coast, including the day hospital. Some of this spend may fall into next year, but the overall spend for these particular projects, including our regular CapEx program, will be about AUD 10 million-AUD 15 million. Slide 11 just illustrates our balance sheet, and it's obviously in a very strong position considering it's in a cash positive position, and the group as well, in a great position to execute on both organic and non-organic opportunities that are in the pipeline.
To note, we've refinanced our syndicated debt facility just prior to Christmas for a further three years, which just provides comfort with over AUD 40 million of cash flow available and a further AUD 40 million in accordion facility for particular growth projects and purposes. I'll pass you back to Michael.
Thank you, Malik. Now I'd like to take a look at slide 13, as we start to work through some of the details of our Australian ARS operational performance connecting with scientific leadership. We have a continued unrelenting focus on investing in building scientific capability to ensure we are giving our patients the best possible outcomes and differentiating our value proposition to patients and to doctors for that matter. The chart at the bottom of this slide represents the continuous improvement in our clinical pregnancy rates across the group, with clinical pregnancy rates in calendar year 2021 increasing by a very significant 4.6% as compared to calendar year 2018. I know it is the second time I've said that, but it is such a great achievement it's worthwhile emphasizing. We've been on this journey of continuous improvement throughout our long heritage.
The Monash Way, as developed by our group's scientific advisory committee, is now well-established across our group and has been a critical driver of improved success rates. It is worthwhile calling out some of the initiatives that will drive further improvements to our success rates into the future. We will continue to partner innovative organizations to advance new technologies such as the safer and softer method of ICSI that is demonstrating improved fertility rates, therefore creating more embryos for our patients. Another new technology we are working on in partnership with Memphasys is to develop a more effective sperm selection process utilizing the Felix device, and we are about to commence a multi-site clinical trial. Furthermore, we continue to roll out EmbryoScope technology across our clinic network, which results in less embryo touch points during the development stage of the embryo.
Partnerships and technologies backed up by our ongoing research focus through our various research bodies will ensure we continue to evolve and improve our success rates. As we turn to slide 14 on an essential pillar of our strategy being doctor partnerships. We continue to strive to have mutually rewarding partnerships with all of our doctors in a transparent, collaborative, and supportive way as we strive for high doctor engagement and building our doctor value proposition. The recruitment of doctors is a testament to this, whereby four new fertility specialists joined Monash IVF so far this financial year, which will deliver future growth and support succession planning. As a result of these recruitments and the successful recruitment and onboarding of doctors in recent times, we have added 15 additional fertility specialists in the last two years.
We will continue to maintain this momentum and our focus remains on attracting and onboarding new and experienced fertility specialists with outstanding clinical competencies, industry reputation, and that are a strong cultural fit. We also see the genetics sphere as a key driver of growth, and with that we have continued to build our capabilities as we have onboarded four new clinical geneticists building and supporting our genetics offering and capabilities. As we now take a look at critical infrastructure progress and our plans as outlined on slide 15. Strategic priority of clinic infrastructure continues to be a focus on, in the medium-term horizon, as our clinics are paramount to execution of our strategic growth objectives.
The transformation of our Melbourne footprint is well advanced and with a new large-scale fertility clinic and a day hospital expected to open in Cremorne, located in the inner east of Melbourne. The opening is planned to be early FY 2023. This will consolidate four existing locations, introduce a new day hospital revenue stream, and provide an exceptional patient, doctor, and employee experience. We are also undertaking clinic relocations and significant upgrades in the Gold Coast, Penrith in New South Wales, and Darwin towards the end of FY 2022 and early in FY 2023. The Gold Coast clinic will be complemented with a new day hospital building an additional revenue stream whilst also improving the patient experience. We move on to slide 16. Our substantial strategic marketing investment is a key driver of our market share gains and driving growth in our future patient pipeline.
Our strong new patient metrics are a testament to this. Our innovative marketing campaigns, such as the One in Six advertising campaign, have continued to build awareness for Monash IVF, and the new Monash IVF brand identity has been acknowledged with two healthcare industry design awards. Our people's positive engagement remains a key priority, and we are focused on continuing to achieve a culture of success throughout the Monash IVF Group for our doctors and for our employee teams. Initiatives such as establishing a diversity and inclusion council and building a learning and development framework contributes to building a high-performing, accountable, fun, safe, and inclusive workplace that everyone will thrive in. As we turn to our diagnostic ultrasound performance on slide 17, which has been impacted by COVID in Sydney and Melbourne in particular.
Our first half 2022 ultrasound volumes declined by 4.2% versus the PCP, and our non-invasive prenatal testing declined by 2.1% versus the PCP. Furthermore, the implications of the lockdowns and penetration of COVID cases have impacted efficiencies, workforce flexibility, and patient willingness to enter a clinical setting. These factors have reduced patient demand and our margins. We anticipate that as we now come into a more stable COVID normal in 2022, the demand will stabilize and the efficient work practices will and are returning during the second half of FY 2022. Following significant increase in demand for reproductive carrier screening services, we launched Monash IVF's branded reproductive carrier screening test kit, allowing couples to identify potential genetic conditions in a child prior to conception.
The RCS test is now available online on our website and in our clinics, and this will be a new channel for stimulated cycle growth that is unrelated to fertility. If you are considering children, please take a look at the Monash IVF website and learn about why you should consider genetic carrier screening, and look at the simplicity of our at-home saliva test. Touching on the group proceedings against Monash IVF, as previously announced, we have lodged our defense in June 2021 against the alleged claims, and we are now in a discovery phase. Furthermore, the matter specific to the claims made are indemnified by insurers. As we move abroad to our ARS international operational performance on slide 18. Our Southeast Asian expansion strategy is progressing despite continued COVID-19 challenges.
Our KL Fertility Centre was impacted by movement control orders and difficult macroeconomic conditions, particularly in the first quarter of FY 2022. However, it was extremely pleasing that the second quarter of FY 2022 went back into revenue and volume growth of 15%, following a decline of 30% in the first quarter. The net impact was that our international stimulated cycles for the first half declined by 19.4%. As a result of that volume decline, we had a 33% decline in EBIT for the first half. Furthermore, it was really encouraging that our new patient consultations achieved a 29% growth in the second quarter versus the previous corresponding period, which provides a solid platform for the second half in this financial year.
As I advised earlier, we are pleased to announce that we are opening a new Singapore IVF clinic, which will commence operations in the fourth quarter of this financial year. Our ability to attract four experienced fertility specialists in the Singapore market will contribute to a 200+ stimulated cycle clinic in year one and will be instantly profitable after a short ramp-up period. We're also in the process of constructing a new fertility clinic in Bali, Indonesia, that we anticipate will be operational towards the end of this financial year. These new clinics will complement our recent IVF clinic expansion in Johor Bahru, Malaysia and Jakarta, Indonesia, bringing the total Southeast Asian clinics to five when they are complete.
Given our presence in the Southeast Asian region and recent progress on expansion, we are well-placed to execute on acquisition and partnership opportunities, which continue to evolve and present in the Southeast Asian region. If I take you to our Vision 2026 strategic roadmap on slide 20. Vision 2026 continues to remain consistent in regards to our objectives and aspirations. We have made significant progress on our strategic pillars as outlined on previous slides. With this platform established, we will continually evolve and improve in order to deliver our Vision 2026 objectives. Our Vision 2026 strategic roadmap will continue to enable everyone to understand our priorities, actions, and decisions required to achieve success and deliver profitable growth in the coming years.
As demonstrated through the previous 18 months' progress, we have strong momentum on our strategic growth initiatives, and these will continue to become more transparent over time. As we move on to the all-important outlook statement for FY 2022 and beyond, which is on slide 21. Although the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve and present challenges, there remains a fundamental shift in the community whereby the mindset of our patient cohort continues to focus on family health and well-being, resulting in prioritization of family creation and extension.
This sustainable shift has driven strong industry growth since June 2020 and is expected to be maintained in this financial year. I would like to emphasize our key initiatives that will support future growth. Attraction of new fertility specialists in the last 12 months will drive volume growth in the second half of FY 2022, and we are well-placed to attract additional experienced fertility specialists.
We are opening new IVF clinics in the latter part of FY 2022 and early FY 2023, including new projects that are well advanced in Melbourne, Gold Coast, Brisbane, Darwin and Penrith. We had an 11% increase in domestic new patient registrations, and we have a strong returning patient pipeline. We will continue to invest in marketing that is expected to continue to grow the new patient pipeline. We are expanding our genetics capability and service offerings, such as the newly commercialized reproductive carrier screening kits. We will continuously improve our pregnancy rates and patient experience. We are focused on the recovery of our ultrasound business and the international IVF clinics following the COVID-19 related weaknesses in the first half of FY 2022.
We plan to identify and execute on non-organic growth opportunities in Australia and abroad, and we will continue our expansion into Southeast Asia, including a new Singapore clinic and a new clinic in Bali. Given the impact of the Victorian elective surgery suspension in January 2022 and the general Omicron surge across Australian eastern states, our financial performance in January 2022 has been adversely impacted in both the IVF and ultrasound businesses. Notwithstanding this, and subject to any further adverse impacts from the ongoing pandemic, we remain confident revenue and earnings before any non-regular items can continue to grow in the second half of FY 2022. That concludes the formal part of the presentation, and Malik and I are happy to take questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Jonathon Higgins from Shaw and Partners. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my question today. Look, great set of results. Particularly also enjoyed the plug on the new product and marketing to all the analysts on the line. Just a couple from me. Just firstly, just around the combined impact of the Malaysian or sort of the Southeast Asian impact as well as the ultrasound. Are you able to give us a view of sort of what the combined sort of headwind on EBIT or EBITDA was in the first half for both of those business units that are the ones underperforming?
Yeah. Jonathan, I'll take that question. I think the KL business we illustrated in one of our slides on our international slide, it was about AUD 0.5 million on the bottom line. In terms of our ultrasound business, we don't call it out separately from a segment point of view, at least. You know, revenue was flat, but clearly the cost base was heavily impacted. You know, that cost base is around AUD 700,000 more than we would expect. For those reasons that I called out, Jonathan.
Okay. Understand sort of those two things driving it there. Just a couple more. Just so on the Southeast Asian business, I mean, like it looks like we're going to see improvements, particularly obviously in FY 2023, hopefully through the back end of the second half of 2022. I mean, just if you could just remind us when that business was pre-COVID, just sort of where the cycle sat for that business, whether you'd like the core clinics that you've got can sort of get back to those numbers. Then just piecing a few things together, it sounds like you're gonna have 200 cycles out of Singapore. You'll obviously get benefits out of Bali. You know, like to me, this looks like probably a 1,400-cycle business or something like that potentially for next year if you have a good year versus the current poor performance.
Are you able to just give us a bit of an idea around just where that's at and where it could go?
Hi, Joe, Michael. Thanks for joining. Your support is always welcome. Yeah, look, our KL business, which is, I guess, the cornerstone of our Southeast Asian business, at the moment, it's sort of normal run rate or even last year was around 1,000 stimulated cycles. So they're the sort of numbers on an annualized volume for that particular clinic. We do expect, you know, the recovery to come through in FY 2022. If you look at some of our other clinics and without, you know, going into the detail of each particular clinic, Singapore, 200+, the one in Mitra Keluarga, Indonesia, is now heading towards about a, you know, eight to 10 to 15 per month sort of number.
You're probably looking at about 150 cycles we'll build to in FY 2023 on that. Johor Bahru, it is predicated on borders opening, because a big part of the patient base comes from Singapore actually, for those you know wanting a more affordable solution or want genetic screening. We expect that to build to in excess of 100 in the next 12 months, as well. Look, clearly Bali is a startup, so it's gonna take a little bit of a ramp up time. If you add all those numbers up, you come pretty close to your 1400 in FY 2023.
Awesome. Just two more quickly. Just on the +11% per patient registration, can you just confirm what that +11% again is against PCP? Is it against where we were at June? Just where that number sits.
Yeah, sure. We do all our new patient metrics and patient metrics against PCP.
No worries. Last one for me, just on the balance sheet. Obviously you've got net cash generating positive free cash flow. You know, we've got a dividend at the half, but I don't think there's anything else mentioned on the capital management sort of front. I mean, should we take that to mean that you're becoming sort of more active on the M&A front into the second half, or it's just a watching brief at this time?
Yeah, Jono, it's you know, it's pretty clear that you know, all things equal, our balance sheet isn't probably optimal you know, from a fundamental point of view. You know, clearly we've got views on growth, whether that's domestic, international, organic or non-organic. Those opportunities are there, Jono. You know, we'll keep our powder dry and see what comes about.
Awesome. Thanks for taking my question.
Yeah, no worries.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Rachael Harwood from Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Hi, Michael and Malik. Thanks for taking my questions. First question, just wondering if you've got a sense as to the magnitude of the impact, the pause on elective surgery in Melbourne had on overall revenue and margins for the second half?
Thanks, Rachel, it's Michael here. Thanks for joining us. Look, I think the key element here is, Rachel, is we go back to the experience where elective surgery was shut back in 2020 through March and April. The fact of the matter is that we recovered that volume and some and got a bit of a spike. We don't expect that over the second half we'll have any impact of substance in regards to the Victorian elective surgery. You know, it was 2.5 weeks or thereabouts restraint. We're now back in full swing. Those patients don't go away, but there was some pent-up demand, and we expect to catch up that pent-up demand over the next two-three months.
Okay, that's great. You just mentioned you're confident in your ability to grow revenue and earnings in the second half. I just wanted to clarify, is that close on first half 2022 or versus the PCP?
Yeah, it's close on the PCP.
Okay, great. Just final question for me for now. Could you just speak to maybe the run rate you're seeing in January and February, just I guess in terms of cycle volumes, and then any ongoing impact from staff availability or patient hesitancy coming in just with the increased COVID cases?
Yeah, I think we called out that January was pretty tough, but that was where we saw, you know, the more significant impact. We're returning to more normal type operations in regards to efficiencies and volumes in February pretty quickly, Rachel, which includes our, you know, ultrasound businesses and also IVF. You know, at the moment, sort of offshore, it's pretty stable. There is a government sort of mandate that they expect borders to open up and in Malaysia too on the first of March. We're getting back to a fairly sort of COVID normal sort of volume and margin profit sort of situation pretty quickly in February.
Rachel, just in terms of workforce, you know, January is obviously adverse for everybody, let alone our business. You know, we had almost 3,000 hours of sick leave. The business is back. It's humming again. You know, we've got strong views on where we'll be in March, April, and May. That just supports our guidance statement that we have.
That's great. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from David Stanton from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much for taking my questions, team, and good afternoon. Look, I wonder if you'd start by giving us the number of remediation cycles you did in the first half of 2022, or has that all been done now?
There's still a few trickling days. You know, if I give you the raw numbers, you know, it was close to 300 last year, so the PCP. You know, we've had under 100 in this first half. The noise around that is reducing. I think the second half will be even less.
Okay, thank you. What number of cycles or what percentage of cycles are the lower priced now in Australia as a percentage of your total? It used to be about 2%. Is it around that still, around that number?
David, are you referring to just our business? If you are, you know, we don't have any clinics that are like.
Yeah. Okay.
Across the country.
Okay.
You know, we'll be selective with obviously discounting and supporting our patients. You know, we still strongly believe in our full service offering, absolutely.
Understood. Two more from me very quickly. You know, do you think it's fair to say that Australians are, you know, preferentially using sort of the higher priced IVF during this economic period, and that's to some extent why you've gained some share?
I think the numbers that I've seen without sort of quoting on some of our competitors that play in the low price area, certainly the premium price product or premium service model has grown at a greater rate. Clearly we're in a good position given that's 100% of our particular business. That's our strategic positioning. Yes, I think it has grown. You know, I'd be interested to see some of the numbers that come through over the next week or so from some of our competitors. Certainly we've been in a position to capture that premium market position and you know when people want to go into this particular category and explore a family.
They want the best service, the best quality, the best atmosphere, the best doctors and the best science, and I think we're positioned really well to deliver that.
Understood. Last one from me. We had employee benefits expense of, call it AUD 34 million. Malik, you called out a few reasons for that, but I'd be interested in what you think the number will be for FY 2022. Any kind of color? Should we be thinking around that absolute number or the same in terms of percentage of revenue?
Same percentage of revenue. I think we call that percentage out in our director's report when you get a chance to read it. The second half, I think it's gonna be pretty similar. You know, it's a bit of crystal ball gazing with what's around the corner from a pandemic point of view. You know, I think our workforce is set at the right levels at the moment. You know, we look at ratios for our nurses, for our scientists, you know, what is optimal to deliver the type of patient experience we want and outcomes. You know, I think you're safe to assume that, you know, it's steady as you go at the moment, Dave.
The numbers you see in the first half should be pretty close to the second, plus or minus, you know, how many leave hours are taken, sick leave is taken. You know, to an extent some of that is out of our control.
Just to follow up on that then. Same in absolute terms rather than percentage terms as a percentage of revenue?
I think 34%, Dave.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Sean Laaman from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, Michael. Good morning, Malik. Hope you're both well. I'd like to drill down a little bit just on the sustainability of market share gains. Now, that's obviously been working very well for Monash. Then you showed a pretty impressive chart with respect to the improvement of clinical pregnancies in the chart pack. You know, is that a chart or something that can be used for marketing purposes? Do patients get access to that before they decide provider? Does it differentiate Monash?
Yeah, we do. We do show that improvement chart on our websites on our success rates. It is very transparent and it does have an impact. It certainly has an impact on patients, and it has an impact on recruiting doctors too, and scientists. It's really important that you know you are at the front end of the scientific leadership in delivering great success rates so that the patient value proposition is optimal. The other element, Sean, to that is that you know YourIVFSuccess, which is a new website which was launched about 12 months ago, also now gives success rate comparisons of every single clinic in Australia or those that nominate to participate in that particular program.
Visibility of success rates is quite transparent now, and certainly we utilize that as a marketing tool, both for internal recruitment, but also for patient recruitment.
Thanks, Michael. You alluded to, I guess, sort of the increased effort, for want of a better term, with respect to marketing and marketing spend. I think I've got my head in the ground, or I haven't been outdoors for the last two years. What does that actually entail? You know, when you're kind of talking to the increased spend, is it billboards as I go back out to the airport in Melbourne? What is it? You know, is it something that your competitors sort of can ramp up to meet or no?
Look, it's multifaceted. It's TV. I don't think there's any other provider actually doing any TV marketing campaigns, and our One in Six campaign has been very, very successful. It's radio. We don't do too many billboards. We do a lot of digital social media stuff. We're quite active on that particular front. We do lots of direct sort of patient conferences, information sessions on digital platforms, things like, we had a Ready, Set, Baby program when people are considering starting a family, and an education session which was on a digital platform providing, you know, information around exercise, nutrition, et cetera, how to prepare to commence your family.
It's multifaceted, but certainly we are the most prevalent when it comes to marketing and advertising, particularly on TVC and radio, across the industry. That's been shown through our share of voice, which is still at levels of around 70%.
Great. Thanks, Michael. I mean, this next question might not have a numerical answer. You know, with respect to those improvements, and you mentioned in the chart pack that there were other technologies that might further drive improvements in clinical pregnancies. You know, is there any sort of scuttlebutt or discussion among scientists or whatever it may be on ultimately where you could get success rates in the next few years?
Yeah. Look, we have our internal objectives, absolutely, and that's a pretty key element of our strategic planning is the direction of success rates. I mean, the numbers that you see of 4.6%, that's percent. So for every 100 treatments, we have another 4.6% on top of the old rates that are becoming pregnant. That is an exceptional movement in what is now a fairly mature industry. You know, they're smaller increments, but over the next sort of five years, if you like. But certainly have we got the potential to improve them by 2%-3%, yeah, they're the sort of numbers that we'd be looking at over the next five years.
Awesome, Michael. Can I also just ask about the RCS kit, so sort of new-ish. What's kind of the uptake rate? Is this another point of differentiation for Monash or are competitors sort of following suit with their own versions? You know, is there any kind of financial benefit observed at this stage?
Yeah, no, it's too early. Look, the uptake rate is good. I think, you know, our run rate is around 100 a month in the first two months, so quite good. The doctor uptake in regards to advising their patients to go down that particular path, it's been recommended very favorably. We'll be supporting growth in that through our marketing campaign. Look, the biggest benefit. Yes, we get a benefit through it, Sean, but the biggest benefit we ultimately get through the carrier screening at home test kits is that they come to Monash IVF, and if they do have, I guess, a risk through them and their partner's genetic profile, the obvious pathway to help mitigate that risk is through genetic screening through IVF.
That's where we'll ultimately get the benefit for it, and there is Medicare support for that particular treatment now. We'll know more as time goes on as to the impact of that. Certainly we think that it could be a fairly significant driver of volume and potentially longer term be around 10% of our volume in five years or that's what our modeling suggests.
Thanks, Michael. Last question if I may. Just the four new fertility specialists. What's their profile? Are these doctors that are established? Are they new through the training program? Yeah, if you could just a bit of color around that'd be helpful.
Yeah. There's two that are established, two that have graduated through the training program. You know, a good mix of youth and experience. They're all highly engaged and highly enthusiastic and working diligently.
Great. Great. That's all I have. Nice set of numbers. Thank you.
Great. Thanks, Sean. Thanks.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Ron Shamgar from TAMIM. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. I just got a question in regards to sort of the corporate activity happening in your sector. Obviously, there's a couple of private equity players battling out for your biggest competitor. Just in your opinion, is there any reason why Monash has been overlooked? I mean, you seem to be, you know, much better balance sheet and a cheaper business that's got a significant market share here.
I don't, Ron. Like you, I don't understand it, obviously, as the CEO of Monash IVF Group. Look, I think our competitor, Virtus, in this particular market, they are more sizable, they have more market share, and they have greater representation internationally. Given I think CapVest, who's actually in the process at the moment, is an internationally based private equity fund. Maybe there's more interest given they're a little bit more advanced in their international strategy.
Okay. Just one more. Just in terms of your M&A, you know, it seems that it's sort of been taking forever to do any deals. I mean, are you guys just being too conservative or, there's not many opportunities out there or,
Well-
Can you just give us an idea? Because it has taken quite a while and nothing's happening.
Look, Ron, you're right, we are being quite selective, so we're very particular about any assets that we take on, and the doctor groups and the culture, and the strategic growth opportunity. As you can see, through the adjusted sort of expenses, there was quite a significant number of AUD 1 million, which was used to source, look at, consider some multiple acquisitions. For various reasons, they didn't occur. We are active at the moment, and we are looking at a few assets, and hopefully, some of those will come to fruition in the oncoming months.
Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. We will pause for five seconds while we wait for a question to register. There are no further questions at this time. I'd now like to hand back to Mr. Knaap for closing remarks.
Thank you, Matt. Look, thanks everyone for their interest in Monash IVF, and we really look forward to seeing many of you, albeit in a digital capacity, over the oncoming week. Thank you again.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.