Apollo Is Bulking Up For Growth

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd's average revenue per occupied bed (Arpob) continued its upward trajectory in the March quarter, rising 6.8% from a year ago and 4.5% from the previous quarter to ₹63,569 per day. The highest increase came from the western region.

- Manish Joshi

This metric for the western and eastern regions has languished below the overall Arpob for the past eight quarters at least. This means that when Apollo manages to lift the Arpob of the two regions, the overall figure could get a boost.

The other two key variables for it are capacity (operating beds) and capacity utilization (occupancy rates). The number of operating beds grew 1% year-on-year to 8,025 and occupancy rates expanded 200 basis points (bps) to 67%.

Despite the muted growth in occupied beds, the healthcare division's revenue grew 10% to ₹2,843 crore, with almost 65% of the growth coming from the rise in Arpob.

Visa curbs on patients from Bangladesh following the political upheaval in that country impacted its hospitals in the eastern region. The company said the issue hit its FY25 revenue growth by 150 bps and Ebitda margin by about 50 bps.