Company news in brief

Mediclinic’s profits boostedMediclinic says patient volumes are on the rise again. And the volume growth in the year ended on 31 March pushed the hospital group’s revenues higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Mediclinic said as the demand for healthcare services rises again, it is well positioned to benefit, thanks to its growing partnerships and collaborations with other players.

Already in the first half of its financial year, which ended on 30 September 2021, Mediclinic noted “a significant increase” in patients’ activity as elective surgeries and outpatient treatments became less restricted than before. Patient volumes at some of its hospitals were already exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

In the full year, inpatient admissions and day cases grew by 15.6% and were 13.2% higher than the pre-pandemic levels. Outpatient cases grew by 15.3%, outstripping the March 2020 numbers by 4.6%.

Thanks to this, Mediclinic’s EBITDA margin for the full year has improved materially compared to the year ended in March 2021, to around 16%. The group’s revenues grew by about 8% to R18.4 billion. – Fin24



Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter

South African-born billionaire Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for about US$41 billion (N$600 billion), just days after rejecting a seat on the social media company’s board.

Musk’s offer price of US$54.20 per share, which was disclosed in a regulatory filing on Thursday, represents a 38% premium to Twitter’s April 1 close, the last trading day before the Tesla CEO’s more than 9% stake in the company was made public.

“Since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company,” Musk said in a letter to Twitter chairman Bret Taylor.

“My offer is my best and final offer and if it is not accepted, I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder,” Musk said.

Earlier last week, Musk said he had abandoned a plan to join Twitter’s board, just as his tenure was about to start. Taking the board seat would have prevented him from a possible takeover of the company. 

– Fin24/Reuters



WhatsApp tests new featureWhatsApp is testing a new feature called Communities to organise groups in larger structures that could be used by workplaces or schools, the messaging service owned by Meta Platforms said on Thursday.

WhatsApp head Will Cathcart said the feature would bring together groups, which are capped at 256 users, under bigger umbrellas where administrators could send alerts to a community of thousands.

The messaging service, which is end-to-end encrypted and has about 2 billion users, said the Communities feature would also be end-to-end encrypted.

WhatsApp has grappled with abuses including bulk messaging and the spread of misinformation and hate speech. Cathcart said users would not be able to search for different Communities on WhatsApp and that it would use anti-abuse tools and safeguards like forwarding limits for the new feature.

WhatsApp said there would also be changes to its Groups feature before the launch of Communities. It said it was adding the ability for group administrators to remove problematic messages from everyone’s chat, introducing voice calling for up to 32 people, increasing file sharing to 2 gigabytes and adding emoji reactions to messages. – Fin24/Reuters



Apple readies several new MacsApple has started widespread internal testing of several new Mac models with next-generation M2 chips, according to developer logs, part of its push to make more powerful computers using homegrown processors.

The company is testing at least nine new Macs with four different M2-based chips - the successors to the current M1 line - with third-party apps in its App Store, according to the logs, which were corroborated by people familiar with the matter. The move is a key step in the development process, suggesting that the new machines may be nearing release in the coming months.

The M2 chip is Apple’s latest attempt to push the boundaries of computer processing after a split with Intel Corp. in recent years. Apple has gradually replaced Intel chips with its own silicon, and now looks to make further gains with a more advanced line.

After years of slow growth, the Mac computer division enjoyed a resurgence the past two years, helped in part by home office workers buying new equipment. The business generated US$35.2 billion in sales the past fiscal year, about 10% of Apple’s total.

Even though testing is far along in some cases, there are no guarantees that all the models will ultimately be released. A spokeswoman for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment on the plans. – Fin24/Bloomberg



Zeder share price ralliesZeder Investments Limited has given shareholders a R7.3 billion boost over the past three years through dividends and the unbundling of stakes in other companies.

The group on Wednesday released its financial results for the year ended 28 February 2022.

Zeder declared a special dividend of 92.5 cents per share, thanks to the R1.35 billion it received for selling its stake The Logistics Group (TLG). Zeder’s share price hit a high of over 9% on Wednesday, before ending at the day at 303c. It was up nearly 2% on Thursday morning, contributing to a nearly 12% rally over the week. Zeder follows a discretionary dividend policy. 

– Fin24