India’s Apollo Hospitals beats Q2 profit view on strong healthcare services demand

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By Kashish Tandon and Rishika Sadam

(Reuters) -India’s Apollo Hospitals Enterprise topped second-quarter profit expectations on Wednesday, driven by higher demand for its healthcare services.

The hospital chain operator’s consolidated net profit surged nearly 63% year-on-year to 3.79 billion rupees ($45 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, beating analysts’ average estimate of 3.64 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.

Hospital chain operators such as Apollo and Max Healthcare have been focused on improving their occupancy rates by adding new beds and accommodating more expensive elective surgeries.

The Chennai-based hospital chain said it had 7,994 operating beds as of September end and its overall occupancy rose to 73% during the second quarter from 68% last year.

The company’s investments in new technology in oncology and neurology therapies, made in the last three quarters, has resulted in higher surgery volumes in these areas, group CFO Krishnan Akhileswaran told Reuters.

This helped its revenue from the healthcare services business – which contributes more than half its total revenue – rise 14%, pushing up overall revenue by 15% to 55.89 billion rupees. Analysts, on average, expected revenue of 55.13 billion rupees.

The company’s digital health and pharmacy vertical, which offers online consultations and operates the ‘Apollo 24/7’ platform, reported a profit of 389 million rupees, compared with a loss a year ago, further boosting the hospital chain operator’s margins.

This segment was helped by a drop in losses in the pharmacy vertical, which the company is confident to break even in the next five to six quarters, Akhileswaran said.

Apollo Hospitals’ shares ended flat ahead of results. They climbed about 16% during September quarter. ($1 = 84.2760 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Eileen Soreng)