BENGALURU (Reuters) -India’s Apollo Hospitals Enterprise beat first-quarter profit expectations on Tuesday, driven by higher demand for its healthcare services.
The hospital chain operator reported a consolidated net profit of 3.05 billion rupees ($36.3 million), up 83% from last year. Analysts were, on average, expecting a profit of 2.92 billion rupees, as per LSEG data.
Companies like Apollo and rival Max Healthcare have been focused on improving their occupancy rates by adding new beds as well as conducting more expensive surgeries.
Apollo, which had nearly 8,000 operating beds as of June-end, had announced plans to add more than 2,000 beds by fiscal year 2027.
This helped its revenue from healthcare services business – which contributes more than half to its total revenue – rise 15%, pushing up overall revenue also by 15% to 50.86 billion rupees.
However, its cash-guzzling digital health and pharmacy business, which offers online consultations and operates the ‘Apollo 24/7’ platform, continued to squeeze the company’s earnings.
The business, which contributes about 40% to its revenue, reported a loss for the eighth straight quarter.
Apollo Hospitals had previously said that it aimed to turn this segment profitable by the end of fiscal year 2024 by moderating spending.
($1 = 83.9250 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)
