Netcare posts robust 2025 results as its digital strategy boosts earnings

Stephen Grootes speaks to Netcare CEO, Dr Richard Friedland about how Netcare delivered double-digit profit growth, boosted its dividend, and plans to transform patient care through wearable technology.

Listen to the interview in the audio player below. 

The Netcare Group has reported a strong financial and operational performance for the year ended 30 September 2025, delivering higher revenue, stronger profitability, and continued dividends from its long-term digital and data-driven healthcare strategy.

Group revenue rose 4.5% to R26.34 billion, while normalised Group EBITDA increased 8.4% to R4.91 billion, supported by higher patient activity, efficiency gains from digitisation, and lower costs as major strategic projects neared completion.

The Group’s EBITDA margin strengthened to 18.6%, from 18.0% a year earlier.

Cash generated from operations climbed to R5.47 billion, reflecting a cash conversion ratio of 111.3%, a marked improvement from 96.5% in FY 2024.

Netcare’s digital transformation continues to yield measurable financial and clinical benefits. Since FY 2022, the programme has delivered R587 million in cumulative cash savings and cost avoidance.

As part of it's digitisation plan, Netcare is preparing to roll out continuous-monitoring wearable devices across general wards nationally, following an extensive pilot. The devices track vital signs, including heart rate, respiration, core temperature, oxygen saturation and blood pressure, 24 hours a day and integrate with Netcare’s Electronic Medical Record system.

Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, Netcare CEO Dr Richard Friedland said the results were achieved despite a difficult economic and competitive environment.

"It's certainly a sicker population. People continue to seek healthcare. We are at the more sophisticated higher-end of healthcare delivery in our hospitals, but we also provide services right across the healthcare continuum. And I think not withstanding that, we were able to achieve operation leverage of more than two-and-a-half times our revenue." says Friedland.

We are not in a bricks and mortar strategy anymore, eve though we have lots of facilities nationwide. We decided in 2018 to move into the digital AI and data space. And what you would'e seen in our results today is expanding that digital divide between ourselves and our competitors. But more importantly beginning to reap that digital dividend," adds Friedland.

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.