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By Bloomberg

Mediclinic International Ltd. shares fell the most in almost two years as South Africa’s largest private- hospital owner said a change in Swiss outpatient tariffs and startup costs in Abu Dhabi cut margins.

The margin on earnings before interest, taxes and one-time items in the Stellenbosch, South Africa-based company’s Swiss unit fell to 19.4 percent in the year through March 31 from 20.8 percent a year earlier, it said in a statement on Thursday. The margin for the Middle Eastern unit fell 0.2 percentage point to 21.8 percent.

“In the Middle East there was an expectation for margin expansion,” Andre Bekker, an analyst at Avior Capital Markets in Johannesburg, said in an interview. “The decline of margins in Switzerland is also a surprise.”

The Swiss margins were cut as the country paid less toward technical services and as Mediclinic took on more generally insured patients, Chief Executive Officer Danie Meintjes told reporters. Mediclinic’s shares fell as much as 7 percent and traded 6.3 percent lower at 113 rand as of 2:28 p.m. in Johannesburg, the biggest decline since June 2013.

Sales gained 16 percent to 35.2 billion rand ($3 billion), with more than half the revenue coming from Switzerland, where the company bought Clinique La Colline in June for 130 million francs ($139 million). Income from the Middle East rose to 12 percent of the total from 11 percent a year earlier.

Earnings per share excluding one-time items climbed to 4.08 rand a share. That was lower than the 4.45 rand average of seven analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.