Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Poppy, your course call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the MedLife conference call to present and discuss the third quarter 2022 financial results. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Mihail Marcu, Chairman of the Board and CEO of MedLife Group. Mr. Marcu, you may now proceed.
Thank you. Good evening, everybody, and thank you for participating in our conference in relation to the results of the third quarter of this year. I'm here in the conversation with Mr. Dorin Preda. He's a Board Director and Executive Responsible for the Treasury and Finance. Our CFO of the group, Mrs. Alina Irinoiu, and also together with our Investor Relations Specialist, Ioana Birsu. I will let Alina to make the main presentation and of course I'll be together with all the team for the Q&A session. Alina, please take over.
Hello, everyone. Thank you, Mihai, for the introduction, and thank you all for attending the conference call. I will start as always with the presentation of the main highlights of this period. After that, we will move to the outlook to the consolidated statement of profit and loss, so the statement of financial position and the statement of cash flow. To start with, you will see that pro forma consolidated sales have increased by 27% as compared to the same period last year. We managed to compensate the drop in COVID-related demand in 2022, but also to consolidate new acquisitions and provide a strong organic growth of crisis resilient medical services.
The sales growth was sustained by traffic increase, acquisitions and organic development projects. In terms of pro forma EBITDA margin, pro forma was 15.9% as compared to 21% IFRS EBITDA margin in the same period last year. This pro forma EBITDA margin reflects the full effect of the acquisitions performed during this period. Here we add NeoLife that you will see it was completed in February and consolidated starting with March. The same for Life Med which was completed in March and consolidated starting with first of April. Pro Life which together with Life Med are integrated under Sfânta Maria brand.
It was completed in April and consolidated starting with first of May. Moving to OncoCard Group and Tomorad that are part of Brașov Group that were completed in May and entered the consolidation starting with first of June. Medicris Group, which is part of Genesys Arad, Profilaxis and the gastroenterology center in Târgu Mureș. All three were completed in June and started to be consolidated with first of July. The last one, which is included in consolidation is Opticristal Group, that was completed in July and consolidated starting with first of August. Apart from these companies that are already included in IFRS figures uh on the pro forma basis you will also see uh Sweat and Medici.
They will enter the consolidation after the reporting period, but the transactions were finalized. While the exceptions are Muntenia and Provita. Muntenia, just as a reminder, is a business with EUR 5.5 million turnover in 2021 and Provita a business with EUR 50 million turnover on a consolidated level. These two companies are subject to the approval of the Competition Council, thus were not included in this pro forma reporting. Moving next to the net result margin um uh 4.7% uh uh pro forma net result margin as compared to 9.5% IFRS net result margin in the same period last year. As a uh follow-up um uh the impact on EBITDA and
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for holding. We are to resume our conference.
Yes. Sorry, everyone. I got disconnected. I was mentioning about the net result margin and saying that in terms of EBITDA and net result margins as a whole, speaking about profitability, the impact in the 9 months is coming on one hand from a new unit and consolidation projects, which are short-term dilutive to margins. Here, we can mention once again DENT ESTET Group. We talked about DENT ESTET at the last quarter results also. They had three organic development projects during this period and also three completed acquisitions in less than 12 months. Another significant project for us is the relocation of the outpatient unit, part of the Medical Park.
This is following the relocation, to be followed with new inpatient medical services and medical teams, with an increased number of surgery rooms, with larger preoperative and post-operative units and uh recalibration of hospital circuits. Some other projects include the three new hyper clinics, Târgu Mureș, which is uh already running uh and Deva and Bacău, which are uh pretty close to being finalized and opened. Uhm then we can see the decrease in margins coming mainly from the newly acquired companies uhm where given the recent integration, the trend will change in the following quarters with the uh release of synergies uh and a lso because we are looking at two different shapes of the group due to Pharmachem.
The impact coming from the consolidation of Pharmachem, which when we are moving to operating expenses, we can also see that it significantly changes the dynamics of the group, being a pharma distribution company where you all know that the margins in this business are not significant. In terms of uh key messages of this nine-month period you already know that uh we have completed 13 strategic acquisitions during this period. Investment for growth amounted to 275 million RON unlike any other year during the evolution of MedLife so i t was an intense year in terms of acquisitions and consolidation.
It was 2.7 times higher year-on-year out of which 200 million RON were directed towards the acquisitions, and 72 million RON were directed towards organic development projects. As part of the acquisitions performed uh the ambitions were to strengthen the medical services that we offer nationally at the level of both brands so both MedLife and Sfânta Maria. The group also followed the strategy of repositioning the business on crisis-resilient medical drivers, in order to strengthen also the performance response in case of interference of external threats. We consolidated the most powerful oncology and radiotherapy services platform in Romania.
We also continued to develop the medical infrastructure and signed recently the last partnership announced with Provita Group o n acquisition of 51%. They are overspecialized in interventional pain therapy, they are owning a multidisciplinary hospital in Bucharest, three polyclinics, two laboratories and two imaging centers. We also pursued the development towards niche medical services that are going to be scaled at the national level the ophthalmology niche diagnosis and surgery clinic in Brașov and also the integration of wellness services through the acquisition of Sweat Concept gyms. The continued investment in the medical infrastructure will translate into added value for our patients and also long-term results.
We can mention here also the da Vinci for robotic surgery in MedLife Medical Park, but also the projects aforementioned, like the medical centers of national level, the hyper clinic in Târgu Mureș, Deva and Bacău, and the three dental clinics of DENT ESTET , which are located in Craiova, Brașov and Arad. In terms of the outlook for the end of this year and 2023, we are going to pursue a balanced approach. This is from both a medical and a business perspective. We have also convened the extraordinary general shareholders meeting for the 21st of November uhm on the agenda of refinancing and extending the credit limits available in the syndicated loan with the new money of EUR 50.7 million.
The refinancing actually means extending the repayment terms, but rearranging also the applicable terms and conditions. Nevertheless, even though this new money are submitted to the general meeting of shareholders, we pursue a period of consolidation, as we have already announced, in which to consolidate and release the synergies of the newly acquired companies for a time horizon of 2-3 quarters. M&A projects and the further expansion are going to be carefully calibrated to the geopolitical and macroeconomic context, having in mind also this period of consolidation. Only small M&A projects are in sight. You won't see a large deal for the period to come. Moving to the consolidated statement of profit and loss.
As mentioned, sales increased by 26.9%, reaching 1.3 billion RON . On the operating expenses side, it increased by 36.6% to 1.22 billion RON . This led to a decrease in operating profit of 29.4%, with 103 million RON in operating profit and a pro forma margin of 7.8%. As compared to the same period last year, you can, on one hand, see the decrease in one-off PCR testing. Also, because we are talking about operating profit, the increase in the asset base at the level of the entire group and of course, that leads to an increase in the corresponding depreciation from 79 million RON to 106 million RON .
Moving to the EBITDA side, 6.8% decrease in EBITDA with a total EBITDA for the nine months period of 210 million RON which translates into 15.9% pro forma EBITDA margin. I said here as compared to 21.6% in the same period last year. Again following the decrease in PCR testing and the consolidation of Pharmachem, which we noticed as the two most significant elements which changed the dynamics of the group, but also of course to mention the newly acquired companies that entered the consolidation and are to be further integrated within the group. The net result of 62 million RON leading to 4.7% pro forma EBITDA margin.
When we are looking at the net result, this is split 88% to group owners and 12% pertaining to NCI. During the nine months period, we have acquired additional NCI, namely 10% in Arad group of companies, 10% in Almina , 4% in Onco Team and 30% in Remedia Hungary. In terms of pro forma adjustments we on one hand as you already know, we included the financial results of the acquired companies, less the subsidies received in relation to the National Health Program for chemotherapy and a ctually the most significant amounts under this program are pertaining to NeoLife and OncoCard, as well as the exclusion of one-off expenses that are related to all these M&A processes.
Moving to the operational KPIs, the business line evolution y ou will see that clinics remain the main sales unit of the group. It represents 35.7% of total sales. Here the growth was sustained by increasing traffic in the outpatient unit but also due to the new acquisitions performed most of them being in the area of outpatient unit. The next one is the hospitals with 17.6% share in total sales. The adjustment of one hospital is basically the result of OncoCard consolidation uh less the receipts of the subsidies received. Here in hospitals, the growth has been sustained mainly by the increase in the number of patients from one year to the other by 13.7%.
The third one, laboratories with almost 12% share in total sales, with a decrease of 23.7% year-on-year, on the back of a decrease in PCR testing, one-off testing which was offset by increasing the number of common lab tests. The last one is the corporate division with 12.6% share in total sales. Y ear-on-year the portfolio of subscribers have increased by 6%, reaching 785,000 healthcare prevention packages at the level of Romania. The next slide with the operating expenses evolution.
You will see that the drivers for increased costs when we are looking at the percentage of total sales are commodities, utilities and promotion expenses. In terms of commodities, the increase is with 6.3 percentage points of sales in line also with the first half of 2022. You will see the same dynamics when we discussed last time. This is due to the consolidation of the Pharma Group of Companies, CHED and also the Pharmachem distribution company, which actually is the most important here. Increase in utilities with 0.4 percentage points of sales. According to the emergency ordinance that is discussed during these days.
A cap of 1.3 RON per kWh for private hospitals was proposed and f or us, private hospitals are the largest consumers in MedLife Group. The last one increased in promotion expenses with 0.6 percentage points of sales due to intensified marketing activity especially in search engine optimization so SEO. In website redesigning the website and the content of the website and not to forget about the rebranding process and the rebranding of the medical units.
In terms of a consolidated statement of financial position, you will see the increase in the asset base at the level of the group, with a 36.5% increase in non-current assets and a 44% increase in current assets. From a cash and cash equivalents perspective you will see a decrease by 17% still with a comfortable level in cash position after this dynamic period of consolidation. Moving to the total liability side you will see an increase of 45% in terms of financial debt. Nevertheless, with a drop of 18% in other long-term debt.
In the equity side, you will see a 14% increase in equity attributable to owners of the group, and a 30% increase in the NCI. Moving to the debt position in much more detail i n terms of leasing liability, and most of the leasing liability position is related to IFRS 16 y ou will see an increase by 17% as compared to December 2021. In terms of financial debt, you will see an increase by 57%, reflecting the 13 acquisitions that have been performed during this period. From a net debt to EBITDA ratio point of view there is an increase from 2.1 as at December to 3.5 as at September.
Please keep in mind here also that even though the new money that are going to be are requested and are on the agenda for the general shareholders meeting the new money are planned to be calibrated to the context the macroeconomic context and we don't plan nor a significant acquisition nor a significant organic development project. Most probably, we will make these funds available and wait to see how the context is evolving. Moving to the consolidated statement of cash flow, being the last one on the presentation. Of course, it reflects the intense activity in terms of acquisition with 2.7 times increase in investment year-on-year.
275 million RON were directed towards the consolidation of the medical network. With a net cash from financing activity of 200 million RON that once again is bridging also the financial debt position that I have presented earlier. This is my presentation for today. Thank you very much. We can