Medibank profits surge but shares fall as CEO warns competition is ‘intense’

Medibank CEO David Koczkar says the health insurer delivered strong year-on-year growth despite a more competitive market and aggressive marketing from rivals. “Very strong growth year on year for the Medibank brand,” Mr Koczkar told News24. “We did see in Q4 a more intense competitive environment. “We manage the business for the long term, some of the practices that we saw that were competitively intense and with more aggregative marketing, that’s not consistent with our strategy. “We manage the business for the long term and that did slightly change our growth rate.”