Total expenses rose by 11.32% YoY to Rs 284.71 crore in the fourth quarter, primarily due to higher employee benefit expense (up 19.27% YoY), higher finance cost (up 19.71% YoY) and higher professional fees to doctor (up 9.6% YoY).

Profit before tax for the quarter stood at Rs 69.17 crore, up by 1.32% from Rs 70.10 crore in same quarter last year.

For Q4 FY24, EBITDA grew 7.7% to Rs 105.54 crore and EBITDA margin improved by 2 bps to 30.9% over Q4 FY23.

For the March 2024 quarter, capacity beds were at 1,935 units (up 17% YoY), operational bed count was 1,427 units (up 16% YoY) and occupancy rate was 48.5% (down 1,034 bps YoY).

Average revenue per occupied bed (ARPOB) was Rs 54,185 (up 11% YoY) and average length of stay (ALOS) was 2.84 days (up 3% YoY) during the period under review.

On the operational front, the company stated that it has recorded its highest revenue despite the continued seasonal headwinds. Key operating metrics during the quarter have been resilient in contrast to last year which was marked with high incidence of adenovirus and other viral infections requiring higher outpatient visits and inpatient admissions.

On full year basis, Rainbow Medicare's consolidated net profit rose 2.93% to Rs 217 crore on 10.51% increase in revenue from operations to Rs 1,296.90 crore in FY24 over FY23.

The firm continued to have strong balance sheet and have cash & cash equivalent, fixed deposits and mutual fund investments aggregating to Rs 515.9 crore as of 31 March 2024, which will be deployed for the ongoing capex plan of the company.

Based on the present cash flow and expected internal accrual in the coming years, the company expects to complete all the planned capex with internal accruals and balance IPO funds. During the quarter, company has spent Rs 50.4 crore for the capex.

Dr. Ramesh Kancharla, chairman & managing director, said, “We had a significant quarter with three new hospitals commissioned in a span of three months. Our project and operations team have worked exceedingly well to ensure that all the projects were commissioned on time. With major expansion completed, we are solely focused on building and strengthening operations at newly commissioned hospitals and add services at existing units to propel them to new areas of growth.”

Meanwhile, the board has recommended final dividend of 3 per equity share for the financial year ended 31 March 2024.

Rainbow Children's Medicare is a multi-specialty pediatric, obstetrics and gynecology hospital chain in India, operating 19 hospitals and 4 clinics in 6 cities, with a total bed capacity of 1,935 beds.