Revenue from the Hospitals business grew by 29.7% YoY to Rs 1,350 crore while net Diagnostics revenue declined by 13.3% YoY to Rs 292 crore during the period under review.

Profit before exceptional items and tax was stood at Rs 172.87 crore in Q4 FY23, up 36.93% from Rs 126.25 crore posted in Q4 FY22. Exceptional items stood at Rs 10.54 crore during the quarter, representing reversal of impairment in an associate company.

EBITDA jumped 25.3% year on year to Rs 285 crore in the quarter ended 31 March 2023. EBITDA margin improved to 17.3% in Q4 FY23 as compared to 16.5% reported in the corresponding quarter previous year.

In Hospitals business, occupancy increased to 67.1% in Q4 FY23 from 58.8% in Q4 FY22. Average revenue per occupied bed (ARPOB) was Rs 57,476 (up 11.33% YoY) and Average length of stay (ALOS) was 3.82 days (up 8.22% YoY) in the quarter ended March 2023.

In Diagnostics business, Covid business revenues contributed 3% in Q4 FY23 to overall diagnostic revenues as compared to 22% in Q4 FY22. Non Covid revenues witnessed a 12% growth over the previous corresponding quarter.

For the full year, the company's consolidated net profit rose 6.1% to Rs 588.73 crore on 10.1% increase in revenue to Rs 6,297.63 crore in FY23 over FY22.

Net debt reduced by Rs 222 crore to Rs 330 crore in FY23. The company's net debt to equity was at 0.04x in FY23 versus 0.08x in the corresponding previous period. Net debt to EBITDA at 0.29x in FY23 versus 0.60x in FY22.

Finance costs witnessed a decline of 12.1% to Rs 129.1 crore for the year as a result of lower borrowing costs and reduction in company borrowings. Cash flow from operations for FY23 stood at Rs 583 crore.

Ravi Rajagopal, chairman, board of directors, Fortis Healthcare stated, “Our hospitals business continues to perform well across all financial and operating parameters. We remain well positioned for our next phase of growth comprising brownfield bed expansion in order to expand and create larger format facilities. This would enable us to draw higher operating leverage from the business. We are also progressing well on our portfolio optimization strategy allowing us to reallocate capital from our non-core or underperforming assets to assets in our key geographic clusters.

This was evidenced in our recent acquisition of a hospital in Manesar, Gurugram in NCR with a potential bed capacity of 350 beds. Our diagnostics business was impacted by the decline in covid volumes and the challenging industry environment which still persists. We remain keen to participate in the consolidation opportunities in the healthcare landscape. While our balance sheet allows us comfortable leveraging capacity, we may also look at raising capital so as to not miss out on larger growth opportunities that may present themselves.”

Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD and CEO of Fortis Healthcare said, “Our hospital business has performed quite well in FY23 led by a higher occupancy and ARPOB with a significant 600 bps increase in contribution from surgical volumes. Our revenues from key specialties of orthopedics, oncology, renal sciences and gastroenterology have increased 49%, 53%, 29% and 36% respectively over FY22. International patient revenues continue to witness a robust uptick. In addition, ongoing cost saving initiatives including those related to drugs and consumables and procurement and consumption optimization have all enabled the hospital business to reach an EBITDA of Rs 922 crore for FY 23, a 37.1% increase and 18.1% margin. Our plans to expand and add beds to our key facilities like FMRI, Shalimar Bagh, Mulund and Mohali to over 500 beds each in the next few years remain on track with a cumulative incremental addition of close to 1,400 beds.

In addition, we continue to invest and expand our medical programs with a specific focus on oncology, neurosciences and cardiac sciences. The diagnostics business has witnessed a muted performance with the decline in covid volumes. Whilst SRL is undertaking a host of initiatives in terms of channel expansion and network optimization, given the challenging industry environment we expect improvement to be gradual. All in all, we believe that both our businesses with their investment and expansion priorities are better positioned to accelerate their growth in the current fiscal.”

Meanwhile, the company's board has recommended a final dividend of Re 1 per equity share for FY23, subject to approval of the members, which shall be paid/ dispatched within 30 days from the conclusion of the ensuing AGM.

Fortis Healthcare is a leading integrated healthcare delivery service provider in India. The healthcare verticals of the company primarily comprise hospitals, diagnostics and day care specialty facilities. Currently, the company operates 29 healthcare facilities (including JVs and O&M facilities). The company's network comprises approximately 4,500 operational beds and approx. 410 diagnostics centres.

Shares of Fortis Healthcare were down 0.31% to Rs 288.15 on the BSE.