Hospitals, NZ pathology, lift Healthscope profit

Australia’s second-largest private hospital operator, Healthscope, has notched up a 19pc increase in annual profit.

Healthscope managing director Robert Cooke.

Australia’s second-largest private hospital operator, Healthscope, has notched up a solid increase in profit on the back of strong hospitals and New Zealand pathology margins.

Healthscope (HSO) today booked a profit of $182.8m for the year through to June, a 19 per cent increase year on year. Revenue for the group was up 6 per cent to $2.29 billion.

Chief executive Robert Cooke said the strong result was underpinned by the robust performance of the group’s hospitals and New Zealand pathology divisions. Hospitals earnings were up 8.3 per cent while NZ pathology earnings increased 22 per cent.

“Our hospitals division delivered good earnings growth and margin improvement from underlying operations and successfully renewed multi-year contracts with our largest health fund partners, Bupa, Medibank and HCF, providing funding certainty for future periods,” Mr Cooke said.

He said the year ahead will see significant capital investment in the company’s hospitals with 10 construction projects currently underway.

Healthscope will pay a final 3.9c dividend, bringing the year’s total distribution to 7.4c per share.