Ramsay Health Care has cut interim dividend after reporting a COVID-hit set of figures for the six months to December, led by a 12.5% drop in net profit to $226 million.
The company revealed a payout of 48.5 cents a share, down 22.4% from the payment for the December, 2019 half.
And naturally, for a company deeply involved in healthcare – the non-COVID partly mostly that has seen surgeries cut in many countries to make way for treatment for the virus’ victims CEO Craig McNally its reticient about the outlook.
He said in Thursday’s release to the ASX that says the path back to ‘COVID normal’ is still too unclear and the private hospital operator is unable to provide FY21 guidance.
Ramsay has signed on to agreements with governments around the world to help support public health care systems in the fight against the virus.
Ramsay did reveal that Victoria’s extended stage four lockdowns last year cost it $70 million, and led to revenues in the Asia Pacific region being up just half a per a cent for the six months to $2.7 billion.
The company revealed that it received $394.5 million from the UK government for services, though the pandemic saw UK revenues down 82.5%, to $86.4 million as non Covid treatments such as surgeries and other procedures were cut.
In Europe, it received $222.8 million for the half from various governments but revenues were also flat, at $3.1 billion.
The majority of government agreements are designed to only cover costs of services, limiting the capacity for profits.
Ramsay raised $1.5 billion in capital last year to help it survive the financial impact of COVID and the various lockdowns.
And like so many other companies, Ramsay’s immediate outlook will be dictated by how the next few months of vaccine rollout eventuate in the US, Europe and Australia.
“The rollout of the vaccine in Europe and the UK has gained pace and the majority of our staff and clinicians in the UK are now vaccinated,”Mr McNally said in the ASX release.
“While the rollout of the vaccine gives us optimism that some normalcy in operating conditions and capacity will return, in light of the risks associated with further spikes in COVID cases, and the flow on impact to our facilities, we are not in a position to provide FY21 full-year guidance,” he added.
Ramsay’s experience is very different to the enormous boost COVID gave pathology and testing giant, Sonic Healthcare in the six months.It’s a case of same sector (healthcare), different services and very different financial outcomes.
