Ramsay Health Care : ASX Announcement - 2020 AGM – Chairman and Managing Director Address & Presentation

ASX RELEASE

24 November 2020

Market Announcements Office

ASX Limited

Exchange Centre

20 Bridge Street

SYDNEY NSW 2000

Dear Sir/Madam

2020 AGM - CHAIRMAN AND MANAGING DIRECTOR ADDRESS & PRESENTATION

Please find attached the following documents to be presented at Ramsay Health Care Limited's 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM) being held today:

1. Chairman's address;
2. CEO and Managing Director's address; and
3. AGM Presentation Slides.

Shareholders will be able to view the 2020 AGM virtually through https://web.lumiagm.com/377315778

The results of the AGM will be communicated to the ASX shortly after conclusion of the AGM.

Yours sincerely

Henrietta Rowe

Group General Counsel & Company Secretary

ASX ANNOUNCEMENT

24th November 2020

Ramsay Health Care 2020 AGM - Chairman and CEO Addresses

This year I am pleased to introduce our new Director, Karen Penrose, who joined us in February and is seeking election at today's meeting. She has had an extensive executive career in leadership and CFO roles primarily in financial services. Karen is also a Director of Vicinity Centres, Bank of Queensland and Estia Health. Karen has taken over as the Chair of the Audit Committee and is also a member of the Risk Management Committee. She has made a valuable contribution to the Board since joining in February as we have navigated through the COVID 19 crisis and the impact on our Group's operations.

Karen's appointment follows a structured Board succession program over the last two years with the retirement of Rod McGeoch, Kerry Roxburgh and Bruce Soden and the appointment of Claudia, Alison and James, along with Karen, as new Directors.

As part of the changes to the composition of our Board Committees, in July this year David Thodey took on the role of Chair of the Nomination & Governance Committee and the role of Lead Independent Director. The key function of the Lead Independent Director is to ensure that any conflicts of interest between the company and its major shareholder, the Paul Ramsay Foundation, are identified and appropriately managed.

As part of our ongoing succession planning, Peter Evans has flagged that he intends to retire at the end of his current three-year term at next year's AGM. Peter has been an engaged and active Non- Executive Director of Ramsay Health Care since his appointment in 1990, and prior to that as an executive joining us in 1969. The Board is very conscious of the need to ensure that the expertise and significant collective experience of the longer standing Directors of the Board is preserved, and Peter will work closely with our recently appointed directors to share his insight and knowledge. The Board also believes that the interests of shareholders are best met at this time by my continued contribution as Chairman, and to this end I stand for re-election today.

Joining us today we also have our new Group Chief Financial Officer, Martyn Roberts, who started with us in late April this year. Martyn has had a baptism of fire joining the week of the capital raising in late April and has made an instrumental contribution to managing the financial impacts of the health crisis on Ramsay. I would also like to thank Mike Hirner our Group Deputy CFO who stepped in as Acting CFO after Bruce Soden stepped down at last year's AGM after 31 years with Ramsay.

Before I get to the financial results, on behalf of the Board and all shareholders I would like to thank Craig, the Ramsay leadership team and all our staff across the globe for their enormous contribution steering the Company through the COVID 19 pandemic. The teams have worked tirelessly side by side with the doctors and the public sector to fight the impact of the pandemic and, where possible, improve outcomes for people infected or at risk from the virus. I would also like to extend the Board's sympathies to our staff who fell ill from the virus and in particular I would like to send our condolences to the families of two of our team members who passed away from this disease in the last six months.

In 2019, the World Health Organisation named 2020 the Year of the Nurse and Midwife as it marks the bicentenary of the birth of the face of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. It is hard to imagine that the World Health Organisation could have made a more percipient call. Ramsay has chosen to mark this year by profiling one nurse or midwife from a different region of our business each week for the entire year. The campaign has been designed to highlight the vital role these people play in delivering excellent healthcare services. We hope these profiles assist the understanding of the vital work and investment needed in the nursing and midwifery workforce to meet future global health challenges.

Now turning to our fiscal year 2020 financial results. Ramsay reported a Core Net Profit after Tax of $336.9m, delivering earnings per share of 156.4 cents. The Board of Directors declared a fully franked interim dividend of 62.5 cents per share in February this year. However, in line with our announcement in April, the Board did not declare a final dividend. I know the decision not to declare a final dividend would have disappointed some of you who depend on dividends for your income, however it was deemed not appropriate in the current environment to be paying out dividends. The payment of dividends in financial year 2021 will be considered by the Board, in the normal course, prior to the release of the Company's interim results in February next year.

The fiscal 2020 result reflects the significant impact the COVID 19 pandemic has had on our global operations in the final four months of the fiscal year. During this period, our resources were directed towards protecting our staff, doctors and patients on the front line of the crisis; supporting Governments with national responses to the pandemic; and assisting the communities in which we operate across Australia, Europe, the UK and Asia.

The assistance being provided by Ramsay to the public sector is ongoing, reflecting the different situations in each region in terms of the severity of the impact of COVID 19. Craig will highlight that as a result of COVID 19 continuing to impact activity in some of our regions, this will also affect the fiscal 2021 results. The Board believes there are too many uncertainties in the profile of the recovery in some of the markets we operate to quantify the ongoing impact of the pandemic at this stage.

As you are aware, in April, given the significant uncertainty in the operating environment at the time, the Board made the decision to undertake an equity raising through an institutional placement and share purchase plan (SPP) which ultimately raised $1.5bn. Both the placement and SPP were oversubscribed and the Board would like to thank all shareholders who supported the raising.

The equity raising has strengthened Ramsay's balance sheet and liquidity position, as well as increasing our financial flexibility. This places us in a strong position to deal with the impact of the pandemic on our business. More importantly, the capital has allowed us to continue to invest in our organic growth initiatives and positions us to take advantage of opportunities that may arise as the world emerges from the crisis.

As a global company, employing over 77,000 staff and caring for over eight million patients each year, the Ramsay Board recognises that we have a responsibility to ensure we are maintaining the highest standards of quality, safety and sustainability.

During fiscal year 2020, Ramsay has undertaken a review of our sustainability strategy and as a result we have developed global focus areas under the title of 'Ramsay Cares'. Our approach to sustainability and any material social and environmental risks are overseen by the Board's Global Risk Management Committee. A number of initiatives have already been launched by the business and Craig will provide more detail in his presentation.

I'd like to close by once again thanking all our shareholders for your ongoing support. I believe that our global team's response to the pandemic has highlighted the strength of the Ramsay culture and the pervasiveness with which our philosophy "People caring for People" guides our employees and drives our actions. The Board is extremely proud of the way our people have stepped up during the crisis and I would like to thank them once again for their dedication.

I will now hand you over to our Managing Director Craig McNally to present you with a more detailed insight into Ramsay's response to the COVID 19 pandemic, and an update on the operating environment.

Slide 1 - CEO and Managing Director Craig McNally Presentation

Thanks Michael and I add my welcome to shareholders joining us today via the virtual platform.

Slide 3 - Agenda

Today I would like to give you an update on the current operating environment including Ramsay's ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a brief overview of our FY20 financial results, an overview of our approach to sustainability and reaffirm the strategic outlook for the business.

Slide 4 - Ramsay Health Care's Response to COVID-19

As Michael has indicated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, and in the face of what was a rapidly evolving situation, our focus was on the sustainability of our business and ensuring we protected the well-being of our employees, our patients and our clinicians.

During this period I am very proud to say Ramsay led the private hospital industry across our regions, working closely with governments to make our facilities and services available and fully staffed to fight the pandemic and support national efforts in the regions in which we operate.

As you will have seen in our annual report and on the slide reel before the meeting there are numerous examples of Ramsay employees responding and rising to the challenge of the unprecedented conditions created by the pandemic.

In Australia, we entered partnership agreements with governments in the major states in which we operate to maintain full capacity and to make our facilities available to assist with the national response efforts. Joondalup Health Campus in WA was one of the first facilities in the country to treat a large cohort of COVID-19 patients from the Artania cruise ship. As the second wave hit Victoria, we assisted the public sector in caring for COVID-19 patients while many of our nurses went above and beyond to assist in aged care facilities impacted by the pandemic.

In Europe, our facilities in France, Italy and Sweden have been at the forefront of the crisis, caring for over 7,000 COVID-19 patients. Our hospitals in Europe are now responding to the second wave. At the current time, Ramsay Santé facilities are treating over 800 COVID patients with more than 300 patients in critical care. The business is working closely with the French government and the public sector to treat patients and will increase capacity where required through deferring non-urgent surgeries.

In the UK, in the face of the second wave, our hospitals have had to make some capacity available to the NHS in regions where there have been more severe outbreaks. The business will continue to work closely with the NHS to assist the public sector as required.

I am pleased to say that no Ramsay employees have been stood down because of the pandemic. However, the impact of COVID-19 on our staff and doctors has been significant. In particular in the northern hemisphere we continue to look at avenues to assist with staff fatigue and mental health as they face another period of elevated stress and crisis management.

We have implemented stringent new safety and clinical quality protocols, guidelines on social distancing and PPE use, and adopted patient and visitor screening and visitor restrictions to ensure maximum safety for our staff, patients and doctors.

Ramsay employees continue to work to support our communities helping local businesses for example by purchasing meals for our staff during the pandemic.

We have leveraged the global scale of our business during the pandemic to ensure appropriate management of supplies of equipment, PPE and medicines. We also utilised our digital technology to flex our capacity to deliver consultations and programs virtually.

In summary, the pandemic has, and will continue for some time, to be an incredible challenge for the organisation one that I believe Ramsay has proven it is equal to. In the process we have cemented