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In a slower day for corporate news, SA's biggest hospital operator, Netcare, seemingly pleased the market with its news of local profit growth. SA's second-biggest, Life Healthcare, disappointed on Thursday. In international news, US competition regulators have barred the former CEO of Pioneer from sitting on the board amid a mega deal with Exxon Mobil.
Netcare, which operates the largest private hospital network in SA, said on Friday that its normalised group core profit is expected to grow by between 7.3% to 7.7% in its six months to end-March, outperforming revenue growth of just over 4%. Total paid patient days decreased by 0.8% compared to the prior period, but the group was helped by easing load shedding, which helped cut diesel costs to R39 million from R68 million. Total operating costs have been well contained, it said, notwithstanding a high inflationary environment and the declaration of an extra public holiday on 15 December, which led to an increase in staffing costs of approximately R22 million. Pleasingly and notwithstanding the lower volumes, the core profit margin in the core hospital and pharmacy operations sub-segment strengthened even when excluding diesel costs and strategic initiatives, supported by a favourable revenue mix and tight cost control. Netcare, valued at R16.8 billion on the JSE, closed just over 3% higher on Friday. It has, however, fallen by more than a quarter in the past year.
Harmony Gold said on Friday that one of its employed rock drill operators was killed in a fall of ground incident at its Doornkopmine, in Soweto, on Thursday. The cause of the accident is currently under investigation, both internally and by the regulator, it said, also offering its condolences. "We are deeply saddened by this loss of one of our colleagues," said CEO Peter Steenkamp in a statement. "At Harmony, safety is our foremost priority. A safe mine is a productive one – never the other way around. These tragedies serve as a harsh reminder that we can never be complacent and much more still needs to be done to achieve our goal of zero loss-of life. We continue focusing on embedding risk management practices throughout Harmony to help eliminate accidents in the workplace." On Thursday, the group announced that an underground construction employee, working on planned rail maintenance, was killed at its Mponeng mine near Carletonville on Wednesday.
