It’s never a good sign when shares in the company you lead rally on news of your departure. Investors in Life Healthcare took Monday’s unexpected resignation of CEO Andre Meyer in their stride, initially pushing the stock 1.4% higher, before it dribbled back down to close flat.In the top post for just three years, Meyer had the job of diversifying Life across geographies and "practice areas". In this, he appears to have been only partly successful. While Life now has a foothold in the UK, Poland and India, business in the latter two regions does not appear to be going to plan. Poland has a fragmented hospital sector. A cut in cardiology tariffs in the past set of financials caused margins to dwindle to just 5.1%, from 13.5%. India’s listed Max Healthcare, in which Life owns just more than 46%, appears to have a perennial issue with costs. Some analysts say the two businesses should be cut loose, despite their short lives in Life’s portfolio. While Life Healthcare did rally to a reco...
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