Racecar driver turned healthcare investor Andrew Bagnall is betting an underinvestment by the government in the aged care sector will see companies like Green Cross Health come to the fore.
The group brought together the Life Pharmacy and Pharmacy Brands in 2009. It now has 354 pharmacies under the Unichem and Life Pharmacy brands along with 39 medical centres under The Doctors brand. Green Cross also has more than 20,000 clients via Access Community Health.
Its full-year results out in May showed a 5.6% revenue increase to $567 million while net profit after tax was up 3.2% to $16.1m. Operating profit however fell 2.2% to $294m. There were varying performances across the divisions with margins contracting in the pharmacy business which brings in the lion’s share of revenue and profit.
Green Cross fills almost half of the country’s prescriptions and new chief executive Rachael Newfield has said co-payments, the part required by customers to cover any shortfall from what the public health service pays, remain a concern. Some patients are having to prioritise what scripts to get filled as they can’t afford them all, she said.
A trust associated with Bagnall is the largest shareholder in the NZX-listed company with a 32% stake.
Bagnall made his fortune after starting his own travel company, Gulliver’s Travel Group, in the late 1970s. He turned it from a niche operator into a global travel provider and went on to float the company in 2004. Two years later it was sold to ASX-listed S8 for $235m in a deal that cemented Bagnall's place on the NBR Rich List.
In late 2018 Bagnall, who has completed an MBA, recently donated $1.2 million for scholarships to Auckland University graduates. The Andrew Bagnall International MBA Scholarship valued at $100,000 a year will allow a postgraduate student to study for an MBA at a top-ranked overseas university.
The Andrew Bagnall Bioengineering McLaren Postdoctoral Fellowship also valued at up to $100,000 a year will fund an early-career scientist at the University’s Auckland Bioengineering Institute to undertake a project at the MAT division of McLaren Industries in the UK.
He’s also funding a number of short-term placements for doctoral students at a range of top-ranked international universities.
Bagnall is widely known as a keen race car driver. In early 2018 the 72-year-old broke a pelvis and several ribs after being rear-ended and crashing in a Bathurst 12-hour race.
He also owns one of the rarest McLaren F1's in the world (seen above in the picture) – a 680 horsepower vehicle that he likes to take for a drive at least once a month. He also owns a Gulfstream private jet.
Bagnall and his wife, Robyn, live in a Herne Bay home that has a government valuation of $17.5 million.
2018: $130 million