Pharmacy Daily | Banks are eager to back pharmacy

PHARMACIES are likely to be offered a "little bit of leniency" as they go through the COVID-19 crisis, with banks viewing the sector positively, Medici Valuations Director, Christian Sirianni, believes.

Speaking during the latest Sirianni Market Update, Sirianni said that while some pharmacies, particularly those based in CBDs, large shopping centres and medical centres where GPs had switched to providing telehealth rather than face-to-face consults, were experiencing challenges, owners and prospective buyers were "quite positive at the moment".

"There's not much concern out there," he said.

"I think there's probably a situation where those sites that are having a lot of trouble in terms of being in CBD locations, large shopping centres and some medical centres, there's a little bit of leniency within the banks in terms of whether or not these people need to be doing their reporting at the moment.

"For the most part the backs seem quite eager to be involved in pharmacy at the moment, and certainly it seems to be business as usual."

While the banks may be looking at the community pharmacy sector favourably, Sirianni noted that COVID had created issues across lenders' businesses.

"They've had their administrative issues in terms of small business loans and managing an increase in demand since the lockdowns were in place," he said.

"[But] as far as supporting pharmacy goes I think it's still very positive.

"There are some banks that come and go as they please from the industry, [but] I would say the key players have been very strong in supporting pharmacy in this time and it seems from the figures that we're seeing there's every reason for them to be supportive."

When it came to valuations, Sirianni warned that Mar sales figures were likely to be an "aberration" as a result of COVID-19-induced panic-buying, while restrictions had impacted pharmacies' performance in Apr.

"On the whole we're trying to get a feel for what normal, or a 'new normal' might look like and what it will return to," he said.