Life Healthcare expects full-year earnings per share to fall by more than 60%, but the headline decline largely reflects a once-off disposal gain in the previous year rather than a collapse in its southern African hospital operations.
In a trading statement released on Thursday, the JSE-listed private healthcare group forecast earnings per share of between 84.2 cents and 97.3 cents for the year ended 30 September 2026. That would be 63% to 68% lower than the 263 cents reported a year earlier.
The comparison is distorted by Life Healthcare’s disposal of Life Molecular Imaging in the 2025 financial year, which produced a R2.4 billion net gain. The company said the accounting treatment of the transaction affected both earnings per share and headline earnings per share in different ways.
Underlying measure points higher
Life Healthcare therefore pointed investors to normalised earnings per share from continuing operations as a better measure of the performance of its underlying southern African business. It expects that measure to rise by between 6% and 11%, from 100.3 cents to a range of 106.3 cents to 111.3 cents.
Other earnings measures tell a more mixed story. Headline earnings per share from continuing operations are expected to be between 100.7 cents and 106 cents. That is more than 100% above the reported loss of 93.9 cents in the previous year, but between 1% and 6% below Life Healthcare’s pro forma 2025 comparator of 107.1 cents.
For continuing and discontinued operations combined, headline earnings per share are expected to be between 96 cents and 100.5 cents. The prior-year reported figure was a loss of 112.1 cents, while the company’s pro forma comparator was 88.9 cents.
Results still being finalised
Life Healthcare said the 2025 pro forma figures were prepared by adding back the fair-value adjustment relating to the Piramal liability. It cautioned that the pro forma information was prepared for illustrative purposes and may not fairly present the group’s financial position, changes in equity, results or cash flows.
The estimates have not been reviewed or reported on by the group’s external auditors, and the 2026 results are still being finalised.
Life Healthcare expects to release its full-year results on or about 26 November 2026.
Source and reporting limits
File photo: Life Vincent Pallotti Hospital, Pinelands, Cape Town, photographed on 22 January 2026. Photo: Husskeyy / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped, resized and SBL badge added; this image adaptation is shared under the same licence. The photograph is illustrative of the group, not of this earnings announcement.
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