Apollo Hospitals Q3 profit rises 42% to Rs 130 cr, revenue down 5%

Apollo Hospitals on Friday reported a 42 per cent growth in net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2020 (Q3FY21) at Rs 130 crore. It was Rs 92 crore in the same period last year (Q3FY20)

Revenues dropped by around 5 per cent to Rs 2,760 crore compared to Rs 2,911 crore, a year ago.

Standalone revenues of the healthcare services division declined by 4 per cent to Rs 1,240.7 crore in the latest December quarter compared to Rs 1296.9 crore in the same quarter last year. Revenue of existing hospitals fell by 8 per cent, while the new hospitals grew by 7 per cent.

"The cost saving measures which the hospital has undertaken saved around Rs 200 crore during the nine months period December 31, 2020. The hospital chain is planning to save another Rs 100-125 crore next year," Krishnan Akhileswaran, Group CFO of Apollo Hospitals said.

He said revenues are not comparable since the demerger of the front-end of the Pharmacy business came into effect from September 1, 2020. AHEL continues to handle the back-end pharma distribution, within a vertical called “Pharmacy Distribution”. 

If the front end pharmacy business is added, then like to like growth in revenue would be around six per cent.

Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for the healthcare services division came in at Rs 158.6 crore during the quarter compared to Rs 178.4 crore clocked in the same quarter last year, lower by 11 per cent year-on-year.

"Healthcare services year to date (YTD) December 20 revenues registered a de-growth of 21 per cent, while mature hospitals revenues de-grew by 26 per cent," the company said.

Regular health services reached 80 per cent of pre-covid levels, Akhileswaran said.

New hospitals have reported five per cent de-growth in revenues to Rs 793 crore (including HBP). Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the new Hospitals were Rs 37 crore as against Rs 75 crore in YTD December 2019.

Post the NCLT approval, the demerger of the front-end of the Pharmacy business came into effect from September 1, 2020. AHEL continues to handle the back-end pharma distribution, within a vertical called “Pharmacy Distribution”. Due to the demerger, the figures of the current quarter for the pharmacy business are not comparable to the previous quarters.

Pharmacy business revenues dropped by 9 per cent to Rs 1126.3 crore in third quarter of 2020-21 from Rs 1,232.6 crore in Q3FY20. The EBITDA margin was at 6.5 per cent in Q3FY21 compared to 6.1 per cent in Q3FY20.

On whether Apollo is looking for investors or partners to grow the pharmacy business, Akhileswaran said: "Its too early to say. We are planning to grow the pharmacy business to Rs 10,000 crore from around Rs 6,000 crore in the next 3-4 years".

Apollo Health & Lifestyle Ltd. (AHLL) consolidated Revenues grew to Rs 197.3 crore in Q3FY21 compared to Rs.185.4 crore in Q3FY20. The business reported an EBITDA of Rs. 112 mn in Q3FY21 compared to an EBIDTA of Rs 57 mn in Q3FY20.

AHLL is a subsidiary that houses the retail healthcare business of Apollo Hospitals. This includes the lifestyle birthing centers known as ‘CRADLES’, Daycare and short stay surgery centers, Diagnostic centers, Dialysis centers, Dental Care Centers and Apollo Clinics catering to a variety of ailments such as liver disease, joint pain, advanced fever and diabetes among others. The AHLL network has 1,073 centers in total as of December 31, 2020.

"The first three quarters of the year have been a period of resilience and recovery for Apollo Hospitals. It is a testament to the strong foundation laid over our 37 years of experience in healthcare that we have been able to emerge stronger than ever before despite the challenges due to the Covid pandemic," Dr. Prathap C Reddy, chairman of Apollo Hospitals Group said.

"The third quarter of the year saw robust growth as we increased focus on non-Covid patients, especially NCDs, which pose a substantial risk factor to the health of the people. This was also a result of our successful efforts in educating our patients on the risks of ignoring symptoms and addressing their fears of visiting a hospital during the pandemic. We were very clear that we would continue to leverage not just the latest medical technologies at our disposal, but also invest in new developments harnessing AI, ML and Big Data to benefit our patients. This was seen in our multiple collaborations during the quarter and I would like to highlight some of these," he said.