Mediclinic confident despite fall in revenue, earnings

(Sharecast News) - Mediclinic reported a 3% fall in revenue in its final results on Wednesday, to £3bn, while its adjusted EBITDA slid 21% to £426m for the year ended 31 March.
The FTSE 250 company said its financial and liquidity position remained "strong", with net incurred debt down 9%, and cash and available facilities increased to £679m, from £518m at the end of the 2020 financial year.

Mediclinic said that looking ahead, it was positioned for growth as restrictions eased and patient demand increased.

The board said it was remaining cautious given the ongoing pandemic, subsequent waves, the varied pace of vaccine roll-outs and a planning assumption of potential third waves causing continuing uncertainty on the economic recovery.

Mediclinic said it was expecting to deliver growth in revenue and EBITDA across all three divisions during the 2022 financial year.

It added that it was continuing to pursue further opportunities to expand integrated services across the continuum of care, supporting long-term sustainable growth across the company.

"Mediclinic remains committed to supporting and collaborating with relevant health authorities in the response to the Covid-19 pandemic," said group chief executive officer Dr Ronnie van der Merwe.

"The group adapted well to the pandemic and demonstrated ongoing operational and financial resilience throughout the year.

"The first-half performance was significantly impacted, particularly in April, by Covid-19-related lockdown measures and restrictions on non-urgent elective procedures."

Dr van der Merwe said the company was quick to adapt and, despite the more severe second wave of the pandemic placing even greater demand on its healthcare facilities and people, it delivered a "solid" second half performance with revenue growth of 1%, while full-year revenue was down 3%.

"Throughout the pandemic we continued to execute on our strategy, accelerated our innovation and digital transformation initiatives and launched a number of new and important partnerships and collaborations.

"These, alongside our focus on expanding Mediclinic's integrated services across the continuum of care, support long-term sustainable growth across the group.

"Looking ahead, we are confident in our ability to continue executing on our strategy and we are well positioned to deliver revenue and EBITDA growth across all three divisions in the 2022 financial year, despite our expectations that there are likely to be further waves of the pandemic in the coming months."

At 0913 BST, shares in Mediclinic International were up 8.69% at 335.2p.