Sonic Healthcare Profit $155.5m, up 5.4% 1H2013

Pathology and medical diagnostic services company, Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL) have announced its first half results for 2013 to its shareholders and the Australian stockmarket.

• Sonic Healthcare Net Profit $155.5 million, up 5.4 percent
• SHL revenue up 3.4 percent to $1.641 million.
• Sonic Healthcare chief executive, Dr Colin Goldschmidt said, "Our focus on synergy extraction and tight cost control has enabled us to increase operating margins by 10 basis points, and this would have been even stronger if not for the one off impact of Superstorm Sandy on our US operations. We don’t know when this is going to turn around but it's almost unprecedented time. Whether this is related to unemployment or other reasons, we're not sure, but nevertheless there’s now been more than one year of flat to slightly positive market growth in the US."
• Sonic Healthcare will distribute an interim dividend of 25 cents per share, fully-franked.