Netcare has seen a significant rise in earnings over the six months ended 31 March 2026, despite recent pressure in the medical schemes landscape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group said its performance was underpinned by resilient demand for private healthcare services and the benefits of its digitisation strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group’s total patient days increased by 0.7% compared to the prior period, comprising an increase in acute PPD and a 3.4% increase in mental health PPD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Group revenue grew by 4.8% for H1 2026, with the group focusing on operational efficiencies. The group’s normalised profit for the period rose by 7.4% to R1,786 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group’s overall profit for the period rose by 11.9% to R924 million. Earnings per share rose by close to 20% to 70.6 cents per share over the period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Headline earnings per share (HEPS) also increased by 21.2% to 71.6 cents per share, while the group declared an interim dividend of 44 cents per share, representing 61.4% of adjusted HEPS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group also undertook a share buyback over the period, as per its capital allocation strategy
of returning excess cash to shareholders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The share buyback programme resulted in the acquisition of 21.6 million ordinary shares at an average price of 1,618 cents per share between 1 October 2025 and 31 March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group has since purchased an additional 11.1 million ordinary shares, post 31 March 2026, at an average price of 1,723 cents per share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The group has been encouraged by the gradual improvement in certain South African macroeconomic indicators, as well as the confirmation that medical tax credits will increase in line with inflation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The group said that an increase in medical scheme tax credits will provide for medical scheme members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “However, from January 2026, certain medical schemes proactively amended benefit structures This led to in-year variability in volumes within the group’s acute hospital segment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Medical aids declared huge increases for 2026, placing a major strain on South African households. The increases were as follows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, the group believes that the underlying demand for private healthcare remains resilient, supported by structural drivers such as an ageing insured population and the rising burden of disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the fluid medical scheme environment, the group has amended its guidance for the rest of the financial year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For the year, the group expects revenue growth between 4.0% and 4.8%, while acute PPD for FY2026 is expected to grow by between 0.3% and 0.8%. Total PPD is expected to grow between 1.1% and 1.6%. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Netcare has seen a large rise in earnings despite the challenges facing medical aid members. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":772459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-861368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861368"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":861398,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861368\/revisions\/861398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Metric (Rm)<\/strong><\/td> Unaudited 6 months ended 31 March 2026<\/strong><\/td> Unaudited 6 months ended 31 March 2025<\/strong><\/td> % Change<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead> Statement of Profit and Loss<\/strong><\/td> <\/td> <\/td> <\/td><\/tr> Revenue<\/td> 13 281<\/td> 12 677<\/td> 4.8<\/td><\/tr> EBITDA<\/td> 2 501<\/td> 2 347<\/td> 6.6<\/td><\/tr> Operating profit<\/td> 1 786<\/td> 1 663<\/td> 7.4<\/td><\/tr> Profit for the period<\/td> 924<\/td> 826<\/td> 11.9<\/td><\/tr> Earnings and Dividend per Share (cents)<\/strong><\/td> <\/td> <\/td> <\/td><\/tr> Basic earnings per share<\/td> 70.6<\/td> 59.3<\/td> 19.1<\/td><\/tr> Diluted earnings per share<\/td> 70.4<\/td> 59.1<\/td> 19.1<\/td><\/tr> Headline earnings per share<\/td> 71.6<\/td> 59.1<\/td> 21.2<\/td><\/tr> Adjusted headline earnings per share\u00b2<\/td> 71.7<\/td> 58.8<\/td> 21.9<\/td><\/tr> Interim dividend per share<\/td> 44.0<\/td> 36.0<\/td> 22.2<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Medical schemes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
and plan designs in the interest of sustainability,” said the group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n