PRIVATE HOSPITALS
Mediclinic shares down nearly 30% as the private hospital group still has to heal
Mediclinic’s share price fell nearly 30% in the financial year to March, though some analysts say the worst may be over for the private hospital group. The group, with the largest hospital portfolio on the JSE, said that although it had grown in southern Africa, it underperformed in the Middle East. This dragged down its overall performance. Mediclinic began 2017 on a high when the shares rallied in January after it acquired a majority stake in Life Path Health, a company with nearly 10 mental-health facilities in SA and the rest of Africa. The share price fell in February after the company issued its second profit warning in five months, citing problems in the Middle East. The government of the UAE required that country’s state medical aid users to pay 20% of private hospital bills. This resulted in net profit from the Middle East plunging 62.5% to £21m from £56m. Subsequently, the stock fell for five days running, the longest streak since October The share recovered in April, howe...
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