Net sales during the quarter grew by 8.7% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 2267.71 crore. EBITDA (excluding other income) rose by 11% YoY to Rs 271 crore in the second quarter from Rs 245 crore in the same period last year.

Profit before tax in Q2 September 2020 was at Rs 52.57 crore, up 344.4% compared with Rs 11.83 crore in Q2 September 2019. Current tax expense rose 11.8% YoY to Rs 6.92 crore in Q2 FY21.

Commenting on the performance for Q2 FY21, Dr. Azad Moopen, founder chairman and managing director, Aster DM Healthcare, said: "Our businesses have come back to normal in the GCC, however India operations are still lagging behind even though the new cases in India have dropped significantly in the last month.

I would also like to share here that the cost optimization projects which were initiated in the past two fiscals with intentions to drive in more cost efficiencies at the levels of manpower, materials and other direct expenses have helped us to become more efficient.

Some of our new initiatives such as Aster Labs in India, Telehealth, and Aster@Home have been seeing increase in business volume month by month. Aster Labs, has so far conducted more than 26,500 COVID tests including government and private hospital samples.

With the help of tele and digital communication, we have managed to scale up our Telehealth services to deliver and facilitate health and health related services.

Another important area where we are focusing to provide service and additional revenue streams is Aster@Home, which is the home care division, which is already very active in Kerala and Bangalore."

Aster DM Healthcare operates in various segments of the healthcare industry, which include hospitals, clinics and retail pharmacies, and provides healthcare services to patients across economic segments in various gulf corporation council (GCC) states through its various brands, such as Aster, Medcare and Access.