In Q1FY19, Fortis saw some improvement in operating metrics on sequential basis.
Fortis Healthcare, India's second-largest hospital chain widened its net loss to Rs 166.6 crore in the second quarter ended September, impacted by impairment of goodwill and investments.
The company posted a net loss of Rs 45.9 crore in the same quarter of previous year.
Revenues from operations or total income declined 5 percent to Rs 1,139.9 crore in Q2FY19, compared to last year's Rs 1,197.2 crore. On sequential basis revenue rose 9.4 percent.
The EBITDA margin dropped to 12.5 percent from 16.7 percent on a on YoY basis, while sequential basis EBITDA improved from 7.7 percent in Q1FY19.
Hospital business that constitute 80 percent of Fortis saw revenues dip 6.9 percent to Rs 899.5 crore on YoY basis, on QoQ basis rose 9.7 percent.
In Q2FY19, Fortis saw some improvement in operating metrics on sequential basis. The occupancy levels rose to 69 percent in Q2FY19 from 62 percent in Q1FY19. The ARPOB (Average Revenue per Occupied Bed), however, declined to Rs 1.49 crore in Q2FY19 compared to Rs 1.52 Cr on QoQ basis.
Revenues from diagnostics business rose 4.8 percent to Rs 234.8 crore on YoY basis.
The company said it had witnessed lower borrowing costs in current quarter by 200-300 bps which is expected to have a positive impact going forward.
"Our operating profitability has witnessed significant growth with the EBITDA in the hospital business more than doubling to Rs 88 crore from Rs 42 crore in the trailing quarter. Our SRL business has also shown a robust improvement in profitability in the quarter," said Bhavdeep Singh, CEO of Fortis.
"Both businesses continue to gain traction as we witness a healthy start to Q3 with the average occupancy in the month of October at approximately 71 percent compared to 62 percent in Q1FY19 and 69 percent in Q2FY19. We believe that given our strong fundamentals and the ongoing momentum, the business is stabilizing rapidly and is well poised for growth going forward," Singh added.
Fortis-IHH deal
"We are pleased that all approvals pertaining to the Fortis IHH transaction are now in place and both the organization are working to complete the transaction expeditiously," Rajagopal added.
India's anti-trust regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) had approved Malaysia-based IHH Healthcare’s acquisition of a controlling stake in India’s second largest hospital chain Fortis
This was the last major approval pending for the deal to be consummated.
The board of directors of Fortis Healthcare on July 13 unanimously approved a binding investment proposal from IHH to invest Rs 4,000 crore by way of preferential allotment.
Capital raised would primarily be utilised to complete the proposed acquisition of RHT Indian assets which will result in elimination of clinical establishment fee that Fortis pays to RHT.
