For the past 15 years, we’ve been planning for a future of increasing demand for healthcare services.
We have invested in private healthcare and medical services businesses in sectors where we see significant growth potential, in particular, in the trans-Tasman dental market, in audiology in Australia and South East Asia and in radiology in New Zealand. This year, we also divested our pathology and orthotics businesses which were reliant on public funding and fell outside our investment criteria.
The opportunity for Abano is significant with projected demand for quality private healthcare services increasing. In particular, dental and audiology operate in very large fragmented market places where we see real opportunities to consolidate and generate long term returns. Each of these markets is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, with proven long term and growing demand from private paying customers.
We have the opportunity to increase our share of these lucrative markets by building scale, investing into infrastructure, expanding our resources and realising the benefits of our size over time.