(Reuters) -Medibank Private Ltd, Australia’s top health insurer, reported a bigger-than-expected jump in profit for the first half of fiscal 2023 on Thursday and said the rate at which it lost policyholders had slowed, sending its shares up about 6%.
The company, which has been in the spotlight since a cyber hack in October compromised the data of millions of its customers, said it lost 13,000 customers between October and December.
However, Medibank said it still recorded a 0.1% growth in policyholders for the six months that ended on Dec. 31.
The rate at which it lost customers slowed in January and it has even recorded a net growth of 200 policyholders this month through Feb. 18, Medibank said.
Medibank’s net profit after tax rose 5.9% to A$233.3 million ($159.4 million) in the six months ended Dec. 31, beating the consensus estimate of A$211 million, according to brokerage firm UBS.
Chief Executive David Koczkar said the results were helped by “standout” growth in the company’s international business.
“We will continue to focus on growing our share in this market as more international students, visitors and workers return to Australia,” Koczkar said.
The company’s shares were up 6.5% to A$3.28 by 0426 GMT, set for their best session in nearly three years. Since Medibank first reported the cyber incident on Oct. 13, its stock had declined nearly 13% as of last close.
Meanwhile, the company said the hacker used a stolen username and password belonging to a third-party IT service provider and accessed its systems through a “misconfigured” firewall. ($1 = 1.4635 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Harish Sridharan in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil and Savio D’Souza)
