Netcare Limited ($NTC)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and a very warm welcome to Netcare Limited's Interim Group Results Presentation for the 6 months ended the 31st of March 2026. May I welcome our Chair of Netcare, Alex Maditse, members of the Netcare Board, my colleagues and senior management teams. Let me, at the outset, express my very sincere thanks to our management teams and Netcare staff across all of our divisions for their incredibly hard work, collective efforts and commitment over the past 6 months and also thanks to our Board for their support and sage guidance. This past week, we had the very great pleasure of announcing Melanie Da Costa as Netcare's new CEO. Melanie will be appointed CEO-elect from the 1st of June and work closely alongside me before fully taking over the reins on the 1st of January 2027. At the Board's request, I will then remain a strategic adviser to the Board and Melanie from January to June of 2027. Melanie is an exceptional leader and a person of deep integrity. Over the past 20 years, I have watched her grow from establishing our health policy unit to becoming one of the most respected voices in South African health care. She understands Netcare, our people, our purpose, our strategy and the contribution we make to our country. I know I leave Netcare in very safe hands, and I am so delighted to hand over the leadership of Netcare to Melanie with absolute confidence in her ability and that of our teams to take this organization to even greater heights. Today, I'm going to begin with an overview of our group results and the operational performance of our various divisions before handing over to our Chief Financial Officer, Keith Norman Gibson, who will unpack our financial results in more detail. I will then conclude by providing more detail on the progress we've made on certain key strategic areas and present our guidance for the remainder of the year. And please remember, ladies and gentlemen, to submit your questions throughout the presentation. Just a very quick reminder of the extensive and growing array of facilities and services we now provide within the Netcare ecosystem across 11 unique divisions. Turning to an overview of our performance. We've been able to leverage off our long-term strategic projects to deliver a pleasing set of results despite a very challenging macroeconomic, regulatory and competitive environment. The past 6 months for Netcare have been characterized by a strong financial performance underpinned by our digitization strategy, resilient demand and our ongoing share buyback program. Continued operating leverage, supported by the group's growing digital dividend and continued focus on efficiencies, maintenance of a strong statement of financial position and further improvement in ROIC to 12.4%, a return of ZAR 948 million to shareholders through ordinary dividends and share buybacks, our digital data and AI strategy gaining momentum and enhancing our delivery of patient safety and quality health care. Our digital strategy continuing to unlock value with ZAR 705 million of cumulative savings and cost avoidance from the CareOn electronic medical record since 2022. This now exceeds the total CapEx and implementation cost of the project. And finally, progression of Phase 2 of our environmental sustainability strategy, which is a key contributor to operating leverage, both in the past and going forward through renewable energy initiatives. This solid operational and financial performance translates into the improvement in our key financial metrics. Revenue rose 4.8% to ZAR 13.3 billion with a 6.6% increase in EBITDA to ZAR 2.5 billion. The EBITDA margin improved by 30 basis points to 18.8%. Adjusted headline earnings per share rose by 21.9% to ZAR 0.717 -- our net debt-to-EBITDA ratio remains stable and unchanged against the comparative period at 1.2x, even after returning almost ZAR 1 billion to shareholders in ordinary dividends and share buybacks, and we are pleased to declare an interim dividend of ZAR 0.44 per share, representing 61.4% of adjusted headline earnings per share. Let's now focus on the operational performance of our respective divisions in more detail, concentrating firstly on the activity within our Hospital and Emergency Services segment, -- we experienced steady growth in patient days. Total patient days for the first half of this year increased by 0.7%, which comprises 0.4% increase in patient days across our acute hospitals and a 3.4% increase in mental health patient days. Average acute hospital occupancies improved to 64.4% from 63.1% in the comparative period. Mental health occupancies improved from 68.2% to 70%. Importantly, patient days and occupancy metrics have been normalized to exclude Netcare Pretoria East Hospital, which was impacted by a fire in December 2024. Revenue grew by 5.2% to ZAR 13 billion, and we achieved an EBITDA growth of 7.2% to ZAR 2.4 billion. Operating profit rose by 8.2% to ZAR 1.8 billion, demonstrating once again good operating leverage. Revenue growth was driven by a 0.4% increase in acute patient days, which were impacted by certain medical schemes proactively amending benefit structures and enhancing managed health care interventions from January 2026 in the interest of sustainability, a 4.1% increase in acute hospital revenue per patient day, notwithstanding higher volume growth from lower-cost network options and surgical cases, which continue to contribute more than 70% of revenue. In terms of the EBITDA margin, the margin improved by 30 basis points to 18.7%. This expansion was largely underpinned by digital dividend and ongoing efficiencies, and we achieved a 50 basis points improvement in EBITDA margin for the hospital and pharmacy subsegment to 19.2%. Pleasingly, Netcare was once again the preferred choice for a net 63 new specialists to whom we granted admitting privileges over this period. And finally, in terms of our ongoing expansion of Netcare Akeso, our 87-bed Netcare Akeso Polokwane facility commenced trading during March of this year. Turning to our Primary Care division. Revenue in this division declined by 10.1% to ZAR 303 million compared to the same period last year. This was largely impacted by the nonrenewal of a large occupational health contract. However, normalizing the base to exclude this contract, we experienced an 8.6% increase in underlying revenue, supported by the successful onboarding of new contracts within the occupational health business. EBITDA declined by 11.1% to ZAR 72 million from ZAR 81 million in the comparative period, and the EBITDA margin declined by 20 basis points to 23.8% versus 24% in H1 of 2025. Again, stripping out the impact of the lost contract from the comparative period, the underlying EBITDA increased by 12.5%, while EBITDA margin grew by 90 basis points from 22.9% to 23.8%. And finally, focusing on occupational health, the division has been successful in diversifying its health client base through the addition of new contracts. And we look forward to leverage off Netcare's in-house digital capability in occupational health to secure further growth opportunities. And finally, ladies and gentlemen, a few operational highlights. I've already mentioned the opening of our 87-bed mental health facility in Polokwane earlier this year in March, which meets the significant pent-up demand, and I'm pleased to report that it is performing in line with expectations. Netcare 911 continues to drive digital innovation with growing utilization of our virtual EMS, which provides 24/7 access to advanced life support paramedics in a simulation laboratory, providing real-time simulated guidance to those in an accident using telemetric clinical indicators. Our cancer division recently installed a new linear accelerator, Netcare Milpark Hospital providing the most advanced radiation setup in South Africa. Netcare Plus continues to achieve strong momentum driven by accelerating sales of innovative products across both retail and corporate channels. And Netcare Diagnostics is developing a growing base of blood gas and Point-of-Care Emergency Department tests across Netcare's acute hospitals and Medicross facilities as well as expanding its repertoire of in-laboratory tests. I'll now hand over to Keith to unpack our financial performance in more detail.

Thank you, Richard, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to be stepping you through Netcare's financial performance for the 6 months ended 31 March 2026. And by way of overview, the business has delivered a robust financial performance and maintained its strong financial position through to the 2026 half year-end. The business has been able to expand its EBITDA margin and it's demonstrated solid operational leverage by maintaining cost discipline and also aided by digitization benefits. At the bottom line, the business delivered growth in its adjusted headline earnings per share in excess of 20% from strong operational performance combined with a lower weighted average number of shares in issue. Netcare's statement of financial position remains in a healthy state with return on invested capital or ROIC, demonstrating a 50 basis point improvement to 12.4% from 11.9% at March 2025. Regarding capital allocation, we continued with our share buyback program, which commenced in September 2023. And to date, we've invested ZAR 2.4 billion to repurchase 181.7 million shares in the market, which represents 12.6% of the total ordinary shares in issue at the end of September 2023. This next slide demonstrates Netcare's consistent track record in delivering meaningful operating leverage while still maintaining a conservative level of gearing. And despite the challenging backdrop of recent years, the graphs illustrate that during H1 2026, the business has converted a 4.8% growth in revenue into 6.6% EBITDA growth and 7.4% growth in operating profit, achieving 1.5x operating leverage, which is commendable in the prevailing low growth and low inflationary environment. Finally, the graph on the bottom right reflects Netcare's net debt of ZAR 6.1 billion at 31 March 2026. And even after funding the substantial share buybacks in the past 2.5 years, the group's gearing levels as measured by the net debt-to-EBITDA metric remain conservative at 1.2x, which is in line with March 2025 and slightly down on 1.1x at September 2025. Moving on to the group statement of profit or loss for the 6 months ended 31 March 2026. We see that revenue for the half amounted to ZAR 13.3 billion compared to ZAR 12.7 billion in the comparative period, growing by 4.8% EBITDA for H1 2026 grew by 6.6% to ZAR 2.5 billion against ZAR 2.3 billion in H1 2025, with the EBITDA margin improving by 30 basis points from 18.5% to 18.8%. Strategic costs for the 6 months amounted to ZAR 23 million, reducing slightly from the prior period's ZAR 31 million. Operating profit increased by 7.4% to almost ZAR 1.8 billion compared to ZAR 1.7 billion in the comparative period. Other net financial expenses of ZAR 265 million were marginally lower than the prior period's ZAR 270 million, reflecting the benefit of a lower cost of debt on higher average debt balances over the course of the 6 months. IFRS 16 interest charge attributable to lease liabilities of ZAR 279 million increased from ZAR 269 million in the prior period. Earnings from associates and joint ventures showed a pleasing improvement of ZAR 45 million, driven largely by the performance of National Renal Care, which experienced strong growth in renal dialysis services. Profit before tax increased by 11.5% to just under ZAR 1.3 billion. The group's tax charge amounted to ZAR 363 million at an effective rate of 28.2%, which is slightly lower than the comparative period's 28.4%. And profit after tax amounted to ZAR 924 million, representing an increase of 11.9% over ZAR 826 million reported for H1 2025. Moving on from the profit for the year, we now consider earnings and returns to shareholders in the form of headline earnings per share, dividends and share buybacks. And as can be seen in the table on the top left of the slide, HEPS amounted to ZAR 0.716 for the first half of 2026, which is a 21.2% improvement on the ZAR 0.591 reported in H1 2025. Adjusted HEPS, which is the primary measure used by management to assess performance and strips out exceptional and unsustainable items amounted to ZAR 0.717 for H1 2026, increasing by 21.9% from the prior period's ZAR 0.588. The Board has resolved to pay an interim dividend of ZAR 0.44 per share. This is an increase of 22.2% and equates to 61.4% of adjusted HEPS. In addition, we continued our share buyback program and the details of this are set out in the table on the top right-hand side of the slide. During the 6 months to March 2026, 21.6 million shares were acquired at an average price of ZAR 16.18 per share, amounting to ZAR 351 million. And since the 1st of April to date, a further 11.1 million shares were purchased at an average price of ZAR 17.23 per share, utilizing resources of ZAR 191 million. So collectively, since the commencement of the share buyback program, the group has repurchased 181.7 million shares on the market for ZAR 2.4 billion, equating to an average price of ZAR 13.38 per share. And lastly, turning to the table in the bottom right section, we see that between the 2025 final dividend and the shares bought back in H1 2026, ZAR 948 million was returned to ordinary shareholders in the first half of the year. And if we add the ZAR 523 million in respect to the 2026 interim dividend that is to be paid on the 13th of July 2026 and the ZAR 191 million of share buybacks undertaken after 31 March 2026, a grand total of almost ZAR 1.7 billion will have been returned to shareholders. Moving on to the group's statement of financial position. I'll begin with the usual reminder of our policy on capital structure, which is to maintain a strong statement of financial position and to retain an investment-grade credit rating while reducing the cost of capital with a safe level of debt. As at 31 March 2026, total assets amounted to ZAR 29.4 billion, increasing from ZAR 29.2 billion at September 2025. Capital expenditure invested during the 6 months amounted to ZAR 448 million, of which ZAR 155 million related to expansionary projects and the balance of ZAR 293 million related to replacement CapEx. Total shareholders' equity remained broadly flat at ZAR 10.9 billion with the benefits of an improved operating performance being offset by ordinary dividends and share buybacks of ZAR 948 million during the period. And finally, return on invested capital improved to 12.4% from 11.9% at March 2025. Next, we'll review the group's debt position. Gross debt amounted to ZAR 8.1 billion at 31 March 2026, offset by cash balances of approximately ZAR 2 billion. And therefore, net debt totaled ZAR 6.1 billion at the half year-end, increasing by ZAR 629 million from September 2025, remembering that ZAR 948 million was returned to shareholders through ordinary dividends and share buybacks during the reporting period, along with CapEx of ZAR 448 million. Net debt-to-EBITDA remains comfortable at 1.2x coverage at March 2026, in line with March 2025 and slightly lower than the 1.1x reported at September 2025. And for clarity, this metric is calculated on EBITDA measured after the adoption of IFRS 16 against debt raised in financial markets only. Inclusive of lease liabilities recognized under IFRS 16, net debt-to-EBITDA coverage is 2.3x, which is unchanged from both March 2025 and September 2025. In line with our policy, we retained our credit rating of AA- for long term and A1+ for short term as published by GCR in February 2026, with the outlook noted as improving from stable to positive. The cost of debt at the half year-end of 8.1% reduced by 70 basis points from 8.8% in H1 2025 and by 30 basis points in September 2025 when the cost of debt was 8.4%. However, the average cost of debt over the course of the first half reflected a 70 basis point improvement from 8.9% to 8.2% as the benefits of the reduction in rates during FY 2025 contributed across the full 6-month period. Currently, approximately 27% of the group's debt is at fixed interest rates, which is achieved with the aid of interest rate swaps. Our growing EBITDA resulted in the EBITDA to net interest cover strengthening further to 4.6x against the comparative cover of 4.3x, while the interest cover metric improved from 3.1x cover at March 2025 to 3.3x cover in March 2026. And the business continues to generate strong cash flows, which is aided by disciplined working capital management. Turning to our debt facilities. We see that at 31 March 2026, Netcare had cash balances of approximately ZAR 2 billion on hand. We also had committed but undrawn debt facilities of just over ZAR 1 billion, and this gives the group access to collective resources of ZAR 3 billion from which to fund our future needs. Our debt tenure reflects a manageable and appropriately staggered maturity profile, noting that there are no debt maturities in H2 2026. And the group, therefore, has sufficient capacity to manage its future operating and capital requirements. And finally, a brief recap on how we allocate capital within the group. We identify strategic opportunities, which must link to the group's strategy and must meet one or more criteria of the Netcare litmus test being growing above the market, differentiating the services we offer, growing margins and improving returns or increasing the embedded value of our offering. When we deploy capital, we require a return that safely exceeds the cost of that capital. We like to invest in business enablers while recognizing the critical need to maintain and refurbish the existing asset base. And in this regard, maintenance capital expenditure is benchmarked at approximately 4.5% of revenue each year. In terms of cash generation, we target annual cash conversion of between 90% and 100% -- when it comes to distributing capital, our dividend policy aims to return between 50% to 70% of adjusted headline earnings to shareholders in the form of ordinary dividends. And in the absence of attractive investment opportunities, our practice is to return excess capital to shareholders, which we do through share buybacks. Finally, from my side, I'd just like to convey my appreciation to our finance staff for all of their considerable efforts in compiling the financial results and related materials. And I'm now going to hand back to Richard, who will update you on the progress of our key strategic projects and our guidance for the remainder of the 2026 financial year.

Thank you, Keith. Now let's take a closer look at the progress made across some of our key strategic initiatives. Let's first focus on an update of our Digital, data and AI strategy. And ladies and gentlemen, you will be pleased to note I intend to use the word digital more than once. This section is the engine room of Netcare's enduring competitive advantage. And I want to spend meaningful time here because what we have built and what we continue to build is unique in South Africa and on the continent as a whole. We are 7 years into a structured 10-year journey to transform the way we deliver health and care, Person-centered, Digitally enabled and Data and AI-driven. Each of these 3 phrases carry strategic weight. And I hope by the end of this section, you will see exactly why. Before I show you what we have achieved within Netcare, I want to briefly place us in context. We are operating in a global health care AI market that is growing from $18 billion in 2023 to a projected $180 billion by 2030. That's a tenfold increase in 7 years. The pace of adoption is accelerating dramatically. Already, 32% of American hospitals are actively using generative AI inside their EMR systems and a further 25% will deploy within the next 12 months. It is unambiguous. AI is no longer an optional innovation. It is becoming operational infrastructure. At the same time, and this is a dimension that makes Netcare's position particularly powerful, trust in health care is fracturing globally. The 2026 Edelman Trust Barometer tells us that 2 in 3 people worldwide feel their country is divided on health issues. Trust in the media to accurately report health information has fallen 11% since before COVID and has not recovered. Consumer confidence in making informed health decisions dropped a further 10% in just the last 12 months and 35% of patients are now using AI to manage their own health, often bypassing the health care system entirely. And yet, the doctors remain the #1 trusted voice globally at 80%. AI is seen as non-judgmental and easy to understand, but it cannot replace the trust relationship. And ladies and gentlemen, I believe this is Netcare's strategic moment. We sit at the intersection of Clinical credibility, Digital capability and Patient trust, and we intend to use all 3. Our cumulative digital savings and cost avoidance have now reached ZAR 705 million. Our Netcare app has been downloaded more than 1.1 million times. And importantly, we are now beginning to deploy clinical AI that will genuinely make a significant difference and will reinforce clinical trust. As you know, our strategy is structured around 3 phases, and this slide demonstrates where we are. Phase 1, our Digitally enabled phase is complete. Over 4 to 6 years to April 2024, we digitized our operational foundation. Our EMR was rolled out across 45 hospitals, achieving significant operational savings across several areas. Phase 2 Data and AI-driven is firmly in progress. Digitization made us data-rich but insight poor. And with the deployment of our leading data analytics platform, DataDoc, we are deriving enormous clinical intelligence and operational insight. The focus areas are patient safety, clinical cost efficiency, funder contracting innovation and clinical product innovation. We are measuring success through patient safety, outcomes, clinical research contribution and our ability to attract and retain the best clinicians and nurses in South Africa. Phase 3 Person-centered health and care is also in progress, running in parallel with Phase 2. This is about engaging people across their entire lifetime, not just when they're admitted to hospital or one of our facilities. The Netcare app, our large language model powered discharge companion and our expanding Netcare Plus ecosystem are all live expressions of this ambition. We measure it through digital engagement, long-term health outcomes and what we call patient embedded value. Underpinning all 3 phases is our adoption of a human AI collaborative approach. We are not automating clinicians out of the picture. Rather, we are augmenting their judgment, reducing their administrative burden and giving them better information at the very moment they need it most. Let's look at the financial headlines of our digital transformation, particularly the cost savings and cost avoidance since 2022. In the 6-month period alone of this financial year, we generated ZAR 118 million of benefits. And to put that in context, the total cost of our digital infrastructure rollout, both capital and operating expenditure to April 2024 was ZAR 670 million. Our efficiencies, as I said earlier, have now exceeded that total investment. The internal rate of return of this program has increased from 25% last year and is now projected to be above 30%. The chart on the screen shows you the annual trajectory from ZAR 37 million in 2022, growing to ZAR 256 million in 2025. And as I said, ZAR 118 million in the first half of this financial year. The momentum is not slowing. It is accelerating as our AI capabilities mature and there are more efficiencies to come. And this is what we mean when we say we are widening the digital divide and expanding the digital dividend. Every rand we save through digital efficiency is a rand that can be reinvested in clinical capability, patient cost, patient experience or returned to shareholders. I want to now take you into the heart of our clinical AI strategy because this is where we collectively believe the real competitive differentiation lives and where the potential to save lives, most importantly, is most immediate. On this slide, you can see the Corsano CardioWatch wearable device. This is a medical-grade FDA and CE MDR certified wearable made in Geneva, Switzerland, that we are deploying across more than 6,000 general ward beds across all Netcare hospitals. It measures 8 vital parameters continuously, cuffless blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, core and skin temperature, sleep hygiene, cardiac arrhythmias and atrial fibrillation, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on every patient in our general wards and maternity units. Importantly, this is not a wellness device. This is clinical infrastructure. This is a clinical infrastructure decision tool and enterprise scale deployment of this kind is a global first even among Tier 1 academic medical centers. This wearables data feeds directly into our 4 predictive AI models. The first and most advanced is our Sepsis prediction model, which has been live in all Netcare ICUs since July 2025. Using an artificial neural network that analyzes real-time heart rate, blood pressure, respiration and oxygenation data, it can detect the early signature of life-threatening sepsis several hours before clinical onset. Those hours are the difference between intervention and potential death. Our second and third models, Emergency Department admission prediction and 30-day readmission prediction have both completed field testing and have SAHPRA regulatory applications filed in 2026. Our fourth model Acute renal failure or kidney failure prediction is currently in deep learning development. I want to briefly highlight the global validation context. Just last month, Mayo Clinic published results showing that their REDMOD AI framework can detect pancreatic cancer up to 3 years before radiologists, nearly tripling sensitivity. And Harvard and Stanford published in the famous journal Science, showing that their advanced LLMs outperform physicians at an emergency department triage. Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, the clinical AI revolution is not coming. It's here, and Netcare is a part of it. Our benchmarking against the very best-in-class in 2026 as rated by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society being the Mayo Clinic, Houston Methodist University Health Network in Canada and Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea shows that we, as an organization, compare favorably, but in one domain, that of enterprise wearable deployment, we lead. Tom Lawry, one of the world's leading advisers on AI transformation in health care, captures it perfectly when he says that health care is no longer just being evaluated against health care. It's being evaluated against the rest of a person's life and experiences, which in 2026 is increasingly intelligent, mobile, personalized and relentlessly convenient. Our clinicians deserve the same, tools that remove friction and return them to the work they were trained to do. The effect on clinical culture is profound. One of our most consistent feedback themes we hear from our clinicians is administrative burden and burnout. The time spent typing notes, dictating letters, coding procedures, writing referrals is all time that should be spent with the patient. This is a global challenge, and we are now solving it. In 2026, we are rolling out our own in-house developed AI-driven ambient listening and dictation across Netcare hospitals. This technology captures dictation and clinical conversations to create structured clinical notes automatically without the clinician having to look away from the patient. Over time, this will evolve into full AI clinical assistance capable of preparing referral letters, coding, medication orders and prescriptions. The benefits to our clinicians are tangible and measurable, improved work-life balance, mobile EMR access in and out of the hospital, multidisciplinary collaboration, real-time clinical decision support and reduced burden. These are rapidly developing into retention tools as much as they are clinical tools. Now that we have digitized our operations, we are deploying clinical AI. We are building the patient-facing experiences that tie it all together. The Netcare app is our primary patient engagement platform, more than 1.1 million downloads with over 415,000 active users. These, ladies and gentlemen, are not passive downloads. They are people who have made Netcare the health care companion. The app supports the full patient journey before hospital, Netcare 911 geolocation, specialist and GP finder, appointment booking and online preadmission. During admission, unlimited free WiFi, a comprehensive hospital guide, the ability to message the hospital management team and digital prescriptions and after discharge, a recovery guide, access to health records, virtual GP consultations, billing and account access and importantly, large language model AI assistant that de-jargonises the medical discharge summary so patients actually understand what happened to them and what they need to do next. The last point on this slide is something we feel very strongly about. In a world where patient confidence in making informed health care decisions has fallen 10% in 1 year across all age groups, all income levels, all political persuasions despite 35% using AI to manage their health independently. This is our opportunity to be a trusted digital companion, the voice that explains, guides and supports not just during the admission, but for life. And so we are intentionally positioning Netcare, not just as a hospital or health care facility you visit, but as a health partner you keep and trust. An example of our patient engagement on Monday last week, National Renal Care launched the renal plate within its mobile application. The renal plate is a secure cloud-based solution that empowers patients to make informed dietary decisions by scanning meals or food labels and receiving immediate nutritional analysis. The platform identifies whether foods are renal-friendly, should be limited or avoided, supporting safer day-to-day dietary choices for patients living with kidney disease. Beyond nutritional guidance, the feature strengthens patient adherence and engagement by reminding patients to take medication with meals if prescribed, assisting with meal preparation and recommending safer, renal appropriate food alternatives. Importantly, renal plate has been designed internally by Netcare specifically for our South African context. The solution aligns with South Africa renal dietary guidelines and recognizes locally consumed foods, making it highly relevant and accessible to NRC's patient population. I want to introduce an investment that is central to our care continuum strategy, Quro Medical, in which Netcare made a strategic Quro Medical is Africa's first virtual hospital. Founded in 2018, it has more than 300 virtual beds across more than 20 acute conditions. It is built on globally competitive proprietary technology, the Quro Medical Insight platform. And importantly, Quro Medical extends Netcare's hospital-led care beyond the ward. Three capabilities sit at the heart of this. Hospital at home allows selected acute cases to continue receiving hospital-level care in the patient's own home with 24/7 monitoring by QM Insight. Approximately 90% of South African medical schemes cover this benefit. The transitional care program provides medical schemes with a 30-day post-discharge pathway for patients at high risk of readmission, introducing significant value and savings to medical schemes. And in hospital continuous monitoring, monitored by the Quro platform, the Corsano CardioWatch wearables stream vital signs minute by minute into nursing dashboards, generating real-time warning and clinic alerts in our wards. I want to be clear about something that underpins everything we've shown you here today. We do not deploy AI recklessly. We deploy it responsibly with rigorous governance, regulatory compliance and deep respect for the workforce that uses it. Tom Lawry , whom I mentioned earlier, makes an important observation. AI adoption is a leadership challenge, not a technical one. The technology exists. But ladies and gentlemen, what determines success or failure is whether clinicians, nurses and patients trust it enough to use it and whether leaders are willing to invest as much in people and process as they invest in software. With regards to regulatory compliance, all 4 of our AI clinical decision tools have been submitted to SAHPRA for regulatory approval. Our Corsano wearable is FDA and CE MDR certified. The FDA's updated January 2026 general wellness policy creates a clear regulatory pathway for low-risk wellness applications like our Netcare app features, and we are fully aligned with that framework. And every AI model we deploy is validated before it goes anywhere near a patient. In terms of workforce trust, our clinicians and nurses are involved in the design and testing of every AI tool from the outset. We communicate transparently about how each model works and critically, where it could fail. We do not introduce AI as something done to our clinical teams. We co-create with them. And before our ambient prescribing rollout this year, every affected clinician will have completed a comprehensive training program. Regarding patient data ethics, we operate under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act, POPIA and equivalent international standards. No patient identifiers are used in AI training without consent. Patients have control in the Netcare app over their data. LLM outputs are reviewed for accuracy before they reach patients. And every AI-influenced clinical decision carries an audit trail. This colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, is what we believe responsible AI looks like in practice. Finally, let's close out this session with our 5 priorities for the second half of 2026, most of which I've already alluded to. And as you will see, the pace of execution is not slowing. First, the full enterprise rollout of Corsano wearables across 6,000 general ward beds. We're moving from pilot to strategic infrastructure and this is critically important to us. Second, the full rollout of Ambient AI scribing; Thirdly, SAHPRA approvals for our 4 predictive models and our sepsis model is already live in all ICUs. Fourth, growing the Netcare app ecosystem. We will expand our active user base beyond 415,000, enhance the LLM medical companion and also deepen integration with Netcare Plus National Renal Care and Akeso mental health Pathways, building the whole of life engagement platform that generates patient embedded value. And fifth, deepening funder digital integration, AI-assisted preauthorization, automated level of care validation and outcome-based contracting, all enabled by data flowing through the CareOn to DataDoc. The goal is to reduce on-site funder management dependency and move towards real-time data-driven funder relationships. Ladies and gentlemen, the digital divide is widening, the digital dividend is growing and Netcare is on the right side of both. Lastly, turning to an update on one of the most significant projects undertaken over the last 13 years, that of environmental sustainability. Firstly, I want to focus on energy intensity. We are rapidly reducing Netcare's reliance on Eskom's coal-fired power stations through the deployment of renewable energy. And this is particularly pertinent as we witness the ever-increasing demand for energy given the exponential growth of AI and data centers. Our path to net zero for Scope 2 emissions consists of 4 phases. In Stage 1, we installed Solar PV systems across 74 sites, providing us with 15% renewable energy. In Stage 2, currently underway, we will have wind power in place from September this year for 6 Eskom-supplied hospitals, achieving up to 100% renewable energy at these sites. In Stage 3, we will be extending wind power to a further 56 municipal supplied Netcare hospitals at Akeso and Medicross facilities from March 2027. And lastly, in [indiscernible] as they achieved in good standing status from Eskom. As a result of all of this, approximately 60% of Netcare's energy needs will come from renewable sources in 2027. Besides delivering sustainable environmental benefits, we've also achieved significant financial savings, a 39% reduction in energy intensity per bed, as you can see at the bottom under Phase 1, a ZAR 1.5 billion cumulative operational saving and an IRR of 40% -- in our second phase from 2023 to 2030, we have to date already achieved cumulative operational savings of ZAR 158 million since 2024. Looking forward, lower energy utilization and use of wind power will further drive further sustainable savings from our full year -- our financial year 2025 electricity cost base of more than ZAR 550 million. Finally, focusing now on our efforts and initiatives related to water and waste. We have achieved a 30% reduction in freshwater consumption surpassing our 2030 target. Water filtration plants are being installed at Netcare Pinehaven, Garden City and Montana hospitals with 8 facilities to follow, and we are currently utilizing filtered borehole water in 13 hospitals. As regards waste, 41% of health care risk waste was diverted from landfill as at the end of financial year 2025. 85% of general waste has been recycled and repurposed, and we are on track this year to achieve 100%. In another first for Netcare, I'm delighted to inform you that Netcare Blaauwberg Hospital has been awarded a Net Zero Waste certification from the Green Buildings Council, the first green hospital in Africa. And finally, -- as reported last year, we've established an Anaerobic digestion plant at Netcare Alberton Hospital, converting food waste to energy. Our efforts have been recognized nationally and internationally, and we were honored with the 2025 global winner of the Association of Energy Engineers Award across all sectors and industries globally. To put this in context, ladies and gentlemen, this is an association of more than 18,000 energy engineers from over 100 countries. To date, we've been awarded 54 local and international awards, which solidify the group's standing in the global and local community of environmentally conscious health care institutions across the world. And finally, as you can see at the bottom of this slide, just to recap our Phase 2 targets for 2030, all of which are linked to executive remuneration. We aim to be net zero for Scope 2 carbon emissions, reduce combined Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 84%, achieve 100% renewable energy utilization, a further 20% reduction in water utilization and 0 waste to landfill. Finally, turning to our guidance for the remainder of the financial year. Given the fluid medical scheme environment, we have revised our guidance ranges for patient days and revenues as follows: -- our acute patient days are now expected to grow between 0.3% and 0.8% for the full year. Our total patient days are expected to grow between 1.1% and 1.6% for the full year versus the financial year 2025 and group revenue growth is expected to be between 4% to 4.8% versus last year's financial results. All other guidance remains unchanged from that published in our November 2025 results, which, as a reminder, is our normalized EBITDA margin is expected to benefit from operational efficiencies off the high in financial year 2025 of 18.6%. And finally, -- we expect to spend ZAR 1.9 billion on CapEx in financial year 2026, which includes ZAR 566 million for expansionary CapEx. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes the formal presentation of our interim results, and we are now happy to open the webcast to questions. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Richard. Our first question comes from Peter at Mergermarket. This is a question for Keith. Can you speak to upcoming refinancing requirements?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Peter. As I mentioned in the presentation, we've got no debt maturities falling in the second half of our 2026 financial year. The nearest debt maturity for us is in December of this year.

Thank you, Keith. Our second question is from Becky from [indiscernible] capital. This is a question for Melanie. Well done on a solid set of results. In terms of the impact on PPDs from certain medical schemes amending benefit structure and plan designs, how should we think about this impact beyond this financial year? And more broadly, can you comment on the general health of the medical aid schemes, specifically those that are under pressure and Netcare's exposure? We are only aware of the pressure at GEMS and Sasolmed.

Thanks, Becky. We appreciate your question. We've been very purposeful in our wording. It's not broad-based, but with reference to the schemes that you referred to, which have been very well covered publicly. So one is due to an acquisition that was made, of which the digestion is now being felt, and we think that due to contribution increases that have been made, it's now more stable. The larger scheme that you referred to for some time, there were some underwriting rules, which have now been tightened. And we think that the pressures we're feeling is in year and our best assessment of the impact has been reflected in our guidance. So just to confirm, we don't think that it is broad-based. Thank you.

Thank you, Melanie. It doesn't appear that we have any further questions. So I'm going to hand over to Richard just for some closing comments. Thank you.

Thank you very, very much, [indiscernible] , and thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for affording us your time this morning, and we remain available to answer any queries or clarifications you may have. Thank you very much.