CAPE TOWN: Hospital provider Mediclinic International reported a 16% rise in revenue on Thursday to R35bn and a 26% rise in profit to R4.5bn for the year ended March. But investors were expecting even better results, sending its share price down as much as 7% to an intraday low of R112.13.
Reuben Beelders, a portfolio manager at Gryphon Asset Management, said the market was disappointed by the fall of margins in the group’s Swiss business, Hirslanden.
Mediclinic said in Thursday’s results statement it planned to add more beds and build new hospitals and day clinics in Southern Africa as demand for quality healthcare continued to rise. It added 271 new beds in its South African business in the year to March through the expansion of existing hospitals and the opening of a 176-bed facility in the Western Cape.
It plans to add 159 more beds over the next 12 months to bring the number of beds in Southern Africa to 8,044.
