SYDNEY - [AAP] NIB Holdings (ASX: NHF) managing director Mark Fitzgibbon says the Australian health insurance market is as soft as he can recall after the insurer's first-half profit dipped 1.3 per cent to $70.9 million.

Mr Fitzgibbon says sluggish wage growth and stiff competition are weighing on NIB, which has posted a decline in net profit for the six months to December 31, largely due to its $155.5 million purchase of corporate health insurer GU Health.

"The domestic Australian health insurance market is as soft as I can recall," Mr Fitzgibbon said.

"Household incomes aren't growing and there's sure no shortage of competition in the market place."

Nonetheless, NIB has raised its guidance for full-year operating profit from $155 million to at least $165 million and says it expects net profit of at least $148 million--up from $119.6 million in 2017.

Although net profit slipped from $71.8 million the same time a year earlier, underlying profit for the six months to December 31 rose 1.3 per cent once the $3.6 million of costs associated with the purchase and acquisition of GU Health were stripped out.

GU Health, the purchase of which was part funded by a capital raising, contributed $28.4 million of revenue in two months.

NIB'S STEADY FIRST HALF

* Net profit down 1.3pc to $70.9m

* Net premium revenue up 8.6pc to $1.05bn

* Interim dividend up half a cent to nine cents, fully franked

 

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