(Alliance News) - Mediclinic International PLC on Friday said it expects to report a drop in revenue for its recently ended financial year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting restrictions crippling its first half performance, despite a second half recovery.
For the year that ended March 31, the Stellebosch, South Africa-based private healthcare firm said revenue is set to decline by 3.0% year-on-year from GBP3.08 billion posted for the year before.
For the second half of the financial year, revenue rose 1.0% due to a strong rebound in Mediclinic's performance in Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates, as well as rising demand in Southern Africa.
However, the recovery was not enough to make up for the 6.9% decline in revenue in the first half to GBP1.41 billion.
As well as declining revenue, Mediclinic incurred an increase in operating costs through an escalation in personal protective equipment usage, higher prices for consumables, and staffing requirements due to isolation and quarantine regulations.
As a result, its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation margin narrowed to 14.0% from 17.5% the year before.
As at March 31, net debt had been reduced to GBP2.20 billion from GBP2.33 billion the same date a year before, following a CHF50 million debt repayment by Hirslanden in November.
Hirslanden is Mediclinic's Swiss division, operating a private hospital group.
With the exception of its Middle East division, all of Mediclinic's businesses reported a decline in revenue for the year.
Looking ahead, Mediclinic remains cautious over the full effect of the pandemic on its near-term operations. Although the group initially expected its divisions to return to pre-pandemic growth in the 2022 financial year, Hirslanden's pace of recovery is set to be slower than expected, as parts of Europe are likely to experience a third virus wave.
Despite this, Mediclinic expects to deliver a rise in Ebitda and revenue across all divisions in the next financial year.
"Despite the more severe second wave of the pandemic placing even greater demand on our healthcare facilities and people, we have adapted well through agility and resilience to deliver a solid second half performance with revenue growth of around 1.0%. We are well positioned to deliver growth in revenue and Ebitda across all three divisions in FY22 despite further waves of the pandemic expected in the coming months, especially in Switzerland and Southern Africa," said Chief Executive Officer Ronnie van der Merwe.
By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com
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