Life has scrapped its half-year dividend payment

DURBAN – Life Healthcare has scrapped its half-year dividend payment in an effort to preserve cash in the midst of the Covid-19 outbreak, and has warned that its full-year earnings are likely to fall by more than 20 percent.

Acting chief executive Pieter van der Westhuizen said yesterday that the group expected tough trading conditions for the rest of the year due to the continued impact of the pandemic on its business operations.

“However, we are taking steps to protect revenue streams, reduce costs and preserve cash in all the countries we operate in and will focus on bringing operations to full capacity as quickly as possible once lockdown conditions in the various countries are lifted,” Van der Westhuizen said.

The group has also put on hold recruiting a permanent chief executive due to the pandemic to replace Dr Shrey Viranna, who resigned in January.

The Covid-19 outbreak has already provided a dent in the group’s results for the six months to end March, with revenue taking a hit of R264 million and normalised earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) by R166m, while its earnings took a hit of R132m.