Maxine Jaquet to be new Healius chief executive
Amid investor demands for a change, Malcolm Parmenter will be replaced by Maxine Jaquet who has led the reshaping of the company’s portfolio.
Healius has named Maxine Jaquet as its chief executive amid investor demands for a change in strategy following the sharp drop in Covid-19 testing demand.
In March, the 45-year old will become one of the youngest of the 14 female CEOs running companies included in the ASX 200.
Outgoing Healius chief executive Malcolm Parmenter, who has led the group since 2017, had faced growing pressure to bring forward his planned retirement by a number of active investors.
Ms Jaquet led the reshaping of the company’s portfolio including the sale of its medical centres, the focus on diagnostics – which accounts for four per cent of overall healthcare spend, and the downsizing of its cost base.
Ms Jaquet, currently the company’s chief operating officer, will take over as Healius offloads its Montserrat Day Hospitals business to a QIC-backed group in a $138.6m deal. Healius announced the sale of the 11 short-stay hospitals and haematology and oncology clinics to Nexus Hospital on Friday. It acquired Montserrat in 2018 for $122m.
Under that deal, Healius will continue to provide pathology services across a number of Montserrat facilities with potential to expand the provision of diagnostic services with Nexus Hospitals.
‘The sale of Montserrat is in-line with our strategy to focus on the growth of our diagnostics businesses,” said Dr Parmenter.
“The proceeds of the sale will enable us to strengthen our balance sheet during this transition period as we reset our cost base and operating model for the post-pandemic era and, over time, deploy capital in … opportunities.”
Healius shares surged toward the latter stages of the Covid-19 pandemic because of its pathology and PCR testing, but a slump in demand has triggered a 44 per cent share price slump this year.
In a trading update for the first four months of the 2023 fiscal year, Healius revealed revenue was down 32 per cent and earnings before interest tax and amortisation was down 64.1 per cent. Both were significantly below analyst expectations. EBITDA margins dropped to 20.1 per cent from 38.4 per cent in the previous corresponding period.
PCR testing through Healius dropped to 3000 per working day in October and November, compared with 13,000 in July.
Healius is undertaking a cost-cutting strategy designed to improve margins in each of its pathology and diagnostic imaging businesses in line with industry peers, which the company said is on track. “In our view, given the sheer scale of the margin “miss” implied today it is difficult to see margins recovering to a point in full year 2024 where the original full year 2023 EBIT target of $180m to $190m can be achieved,” wrote Morgan Stanley brokers in a note, downgrading their price target from $3.90 to $3 per share.
Credit Suisse reduced its price target to $3.20 from $3.65 and reduced its full year 2023 NPAT forecast by 50 per cent and EBITDA by 13 per cent. In its research note, Credit Suisse was marked in its response to Healius’s lack of proper trading update.
“At the AGM update in October, Healius provided qualitative commentary and had suggested it would provide full year guidance by year end. Healius did not provide a guidance range and has stated it will continue to provide regular trading updates instead,” said the Credit Suisse note.
Ms Jaquet will have work ahead of her to win back market support. She had moved to Healius – when it was known as Primary Health – with former Qantas CFO Peter Gregg, who became the chief executive. Mr Gregg stood down from his position as CEO after being accused by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission – and falsely convicted before all charges were thrown out – of falsifying the books of his previous employer Leighton Holdings.
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