 "Apollo Hospitals profit rises 60% in Q3; digital biz achieves break-even")
Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (AHEL) on Thursday reported a 60 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 245.3 crore for the third quarter of Financial Year 2023-24 (Q3 FY24) compared to Rs 153.5 crore in the same period in FY23, owing to a rise in patient flows across hospitals and the digital healthcare platform HealthCo achieving break-even.
AHEL’s revenue from operations was up by 14 per cent in Q3 FY24 to Rs 4850.6 crore, compared to Rs 4,263.6 crore during the third quarter of FY23. “We were expecting our HealthCo business to achieve break-even in the fourth quarter. However, we achieved that in Q3 itself. Going forward, we expect a 20 per cent growth in this business,” said Krishnan Akhileswaran, chief financial officer at Apollo Hospitals. The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) was at Rs 6,13.7 crore in Q3 FY24, compared to Rs 505.3 crore in Q3 FY23.
The company will set up seven new hospitals with 2,300 beds at an investment of Rs 3,400 crore between 2025 and 2027, he said. As on December 31, 2023, AHEL had 7,911 operating beds across (excluding Apollo Health and Lifestyle Limited and managed beds), out of which 2,528 were new and 1,584 occupied. In the hospital services segment, the overall occupancy for hospitals was at 65 per cent in Q3 FY24 compared to 64 per cent in the same period in the previous year.
Consolidated revenue of the healthcare services division increased by 12 per cent to Rs 2463.5 crore in Q3 FY24 compared to Rs 2194.4 crore in Q3 FY23. All regional clusters grew in revenue in Q3 FY24: 9 per cent in Tamil Nadu, 10 per cent in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 14 per cent in Karnataka, 15 per cent in the eastern region, 25 per cent in the west, and 11 per cent in the north.
Apollo HealthCo, which is the digital healthcare and omnichannel pharmacy platform, posted strong growth in Q3 FY24. Offline pharmacy distribution revenue was at Rs 1,824.4 crore in Q3 FY24 while that from digital platform was at Rs 2,24.9 crore. HealthCo revenues was at Rs 2,049.3 crore, marking 17 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth. About 119 new stores were opened in Q3 FY24, taking the total to 5,790.
Apollo Health and Lifestyle Limited, the company’s diagnostics and retail healthcare division, reported a revenue of Rs.337.7 crore in Q3 FY24; growing 8 per cent YoY. The diagnostics business added 388 collection centres to take the overall to 2,041 in 260 cities. It aims to reach 2,141 collection centres by end of this financial year. In Q3 FY24, diagnostics revenue stood at Rs 112.2 crore.