Next Update Pending, page-32

Yours is a very reasonable point of view gragou02! I find it difficult to argue against the points you have made. Other than to note that SHL is already a very mature business now….if there is to be something of a pause in the acquisition strategy, it won’t throw our strategy out the window…we are not dependent on it.
There is also some scope to fund small acquisitions with free cash flow. After the recent buyback, we now only have 473 million shares on issue. Dividends are a bit over a dollar, so even underlying NPAT (I think from memory it’s 650 million and growing a bit)
gives some scope to helping with a bit acquiring, and I assume free cash flow is actually higher than the NPAT. And debt is low now (as we have both noted, the Covid profits were very well applied in reducing debt.)
I’m also hopeful that the growth rate in the core business might accelerate a bit going forward. It was disrupted by Covid, and hopefully folks are now “catching up” with their other medical requirements.
Having said all that, I accept your viewpoint as a valid and considered one.