Healthcare Industry News
Privateers circle an ailing healthcare sector
Saturday, 29, May 2010
It started out with a few aches and pains, and then a pallid veil swept over the sector. Before too long, a number of health stocks appeared in need of a good lie down. Primary Health Care and Sonic Health, competitors in the pathology and diagnostic imaging space, recently confessed they won't meet their profit forecasts. Shares in both were savaged as a result, despite their respective protestations that long-term prospects remained strong.
Healthscope has been making similar noises, following its thwarted bid to break into aged-care earlier this year. A behind-the-scenes tangle with some institutions over how to value the acquisition target ensued and Australia's second-largest hospital operator has been battling on ever since.For some, the prognosis looks to be far worse. Take Sigma Pharmaceuticals, which is holed up in the intensive care unit after an unexpected $389 million loss saw it breach its borrowing covenants.
