Currency swings help South Africa's Mediclinic lift H1 profit by 10 pct

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's biggest private hospital operator by value, Mediclinic International Ltd, reported a 10 percent increase in first-year profit on Thursday, helped by favourable currency swings and a solid showing at home. Mediclinic, which also operates in Switzerland and the Middle East, said diluted headline earnings per share totalled 185.3 cents in the six months ended September compared with 169 cents a year earlier. Headline EPS, the main profit measure in South Africa, strips out certain one-off items. Revenue increased 19 percent to 16.8 billion rand ($1.5 billion), partly boosted by favourable exchange rates. The rand weakened more than 13 percent against the Swiss franc during the reporting period. Mediclinic, along with rivals Life Healthcare and Netcare, is benefiting from increasing demand at home as a growing middle class takes up medical insurance and ditches public hospitals, which are often short of staff, equipment and medicines. (1 US dollar = 11.1325 South African rand) (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; editing by David Dolan)