To be honest, though, it’s been a long time coming for Capitec. There’s nothing wrong with the underlying bank. The problem is entirely the valuation.
You would only pay a premium to book value if the bank is either growing quickly or generating above-average returns from that equity. A “high” price/book value would be as much as 2x, which would make me nervous. Despite losing more than 20% this year, Capitec’s multiple is still 5.2x.A key principle in corporate governance is succession planning.
In a pre-close update on its performance, Netcare has indicated that the case mix is normalising. This means higher patient growth and lower revenue per patient.