Spire Healthcare Group plc provided preliminary earnings guidance for financial year ended December 31, 2016 and full year of 2017. For the year 2016, the company expects group revenues of approximately £925 million against £885 million a year ago. Group EBITDA was approximately £162 million against £160 million a year ago. While the overall results for financial year 2016 were adversely impacted by recent trading performance at St Anthony's hospital, the Group's underlying performance (excluding St Anthony's) is expected to be towards the top end of the revenue and EBITDA guidance for 2016 (which guided to a range for revenue growth of between 3% and 5% over Financial Year 2015 at a circa 18% margin). In addition, cash flow has remained strong throughout the year and the group expects year-end net debt leverage of circa 2.7 times EBITDA, against guidance of 3.0 times EBITDA. Management will provide earnings guidance for the financial year ending December 31, 2017. This guidance will take account of the continuing strength of the trading performance in Spire Healthcare's underlying business, the impact of the recovery plan for St Anthony's, the start- up effects of their two new hospitals in Manchester and Nottingham (on track to open in January 2017 and April 2017 respectively) and the impact of the NHS tariff changes, net of efficiency savings. Management expect the net effect of these factors to result in an EBITDA outcome for 2017 in line with 2016, before the Group returns to mid to high single digit EBITDA growth from Financial Year 2018 onwards.