Sonic Healthcare

ASX listed Sonic Healthcare is a $4.2 billion international medical diagnostics company that provides pathology and radiology services in Australia, UK, US, New Zealand, Germany and Hong Kong.

The company grew through consolidating the domestic pathology market, but as the Australian pathology sector is largely a duopoly, it has expanded globally. Pathology accounts for 81 per cent of its revenue, and of this 25 per cent is from Europe, 23 per cent from the US, and 2 per cent from NZ.

Revenue in financial year 2010-11 was $3.1 billion, and its net profit was $294 million. Dividend income is presently an attractive 5.3 per cent per annum.

Ethically, Sonic has a strong presence in medical research charities, a sound environment policy, good gender equity in management, and has been independently assessed as having good corporate governance practices.

While the strong Australian dollar has reduced profits from its overseas businesses, the strong exchange rate has allowed it to continue to acquire offshore businesses at a lower cost.

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