Apollo Hospitals eyes medical tourism boost, capacity growth in FY26

Mint

2 days ago

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd (Ahel) is stepping up its medical tourism strategy, aiming to diversify its overseas patient base beyond Bangladesh, where inflows have slowed due to an ongoing economic crisis.
The company's Q1FY26 results, announced on Tuesday, showed a 42% year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit to ₹ 433 crore, up from ₹ 305 crore a year earlier. Revenue from operations climbed 15% to ₹ 5,842 crore, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) rose 26% to ₹ 852 crore.
The main healthcare services division delivered an 11% revenue increase to ₹ 2,935 crore, supported by high-end surgeries and growth in speciality areas such as cardiac, oncology, neurology, gastroenterology and orthopaedics. However, a 1.5% revenue hit came from reduced medical tourism from Bangladesh, which has been declining since Q3FY25.
The healthcare player is looking at attracting more patients from other markets now. 'We are doing a lot to see how we can more actively engage in some of these markets,' Madhu Sasidhar, president and chief executive officer of the hospitals division, told Mint.
Apollo is eyeing a larger chunk in the African-Middle East cluster, where they have already substantially increased revenues, Sasidhar said. The hospital chain is also looking at markets in the eastern corridor like Myanmar and Cambodia, Southeast Asia, and the CIS countries as well.
'Over the next few months, you will start to see some of that come to fruition,' Sasidhar added.
The hospital chain is also looking at operationalizing six new hospitals, with a total of over 1,500 new beds this year. 'There is a significant capacity that will get augmented in the next one year,' chief financial officer Krishnan Akhileswaran said.
The group reiterated plans to add more than 4,300 beds over the next five years and reported network occupancy at 65% versus 68% a year earlier.
The company's digital pharmacy business Apollo 24/7 is on track to break even by Q4FY26, Akhileswaran said.
During the first quarter of FY26, Ahel announced the demerger of its omnichannel pharmacy and digital health business into a new entity, Apollo Healthtech, which will be listed in the next 12-18 months.
'This is the appropriate time because if you look at it, by the time we demerge, it will be Q4FY27…by that time, we should be doing reasonably good margins. And with this growth, we hope that by Q4FY27, this would be a ₹ 25,000 crore run rate company, which is a sizable number for someone like us to be able to list that company,' he said.
The overall digital health and omnichannel pharmacy distribution business reported a 19% YoY growth in revenues to ₹ 2,472 crore. Ebitda stood at ₹ 94 crore against ₹ 23 crore in Q1FY25, with margins at 3.8%. Net profit stood at ₹ 57 crore during the fiscal.
Apollo Hospitals' shares ended 0.1% lower at ₹ 7,253 on the National Stock Exchange ahead of the results.