South African health-care group Netcare has acquired a controlling interest in the leading private hospital operator in the United Kingdom — General Healthcare Group (GHG) — from BC Partners. GHG is the leading provider of private acute care in the UK with a national network of 49 hospitals. Its facilities and doctor base enable it to offer a comprehensive range of medical and surgical services across the UK, Netcare said on Tuesday.
Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard warned on Tuesday that his side are on the rise and will be better equipped than ever to challenge Chelsea for next year’s Premiership title. ”We have progressed a lot in the last year,” said Gerrard. ”The gap was 35 points last season, this time around we are better than half that. We have got a fantastic manager [Rafael Benitez] who is going to continue to build.”
Michael Schumacher has been offered another lucrative two-year contract extension at Ferrari, seemingly ensuring that he ends his career at the famed Italian Formula One team and doesn’t move elsewhere. Bild said that Schumacher will earn the same annual â,¬35-million he gets under the current four-year deal he signed in 2003.
Athletics South Africa (ASA) on Tuesday announced that top marathon runner Gert Thys has been suspended from all athletics competitions, pending a resolution of his anti-doping case. ASA was advised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) that Thys’s urine sample collected on March 12 at the Seoul International Marathon contained the prohibited substance Norandrosterone.
The JSE was in negative territory in noon trade on Tuesday, dragged down by widespread profit-taking. Weakness in heavyweight dual-listed stocks offshore further weighed on the local bourse. By 12.04pm, the all-share and all-share industrial indices shed 0,5% and 0,51% respectively.
By month-end Zimbabwe’s year-to-year inflation rate will have topped 1 000%, according to calculations by the regionally represented Imara financial-services group. Fungai Tarirah, chief investment officer of Harare-based Imara Asset Management Zimbabwe, says inflation benchmarking by some of the country’s larger companies actually puts the rate as high as 1 600%.
The increase in South Africa’s consumer price index excluding mortgage rate changes (CPIX) for metro and other areas eased to 3,8% year-on-year (y/y) in March after increasing by 4,5% y/y in February, Statistics South Africa said on Tuesday.
First National Bank on Tuesday unveiled a R100-million technology investment programme to expand its ATM network infrastructure across the country during 2006. FNB said the new ATM machines would be able to identify the customer by his or her name.
Fees at Zimbabwe’s public hospitals have been increased by more than 2 700%, Harare’s Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday. Its website said the move formed part of a drive to improve the quality of service in government hospitals.
Bitter rivals Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns appeared more like the best of friends when a press conference was held on Monday to publicise their eagerly-awaited Absa Cup semifinal in Rustenburg on Saturday. Ernst Middendorp of Chiefs and Neil Tovey and Migueal Gamondi of Sundowns were responsible for this uncharacteristic accord.