Max Healthcare's 10K bed expansion to be done with zero debt

Abhay Soi, chairman and managing director of Max Healthcare, one of India’s largest hospital chains in revenue, in an interview with Anjali Singh in Mumbai, discusses the outfit's funding, growth outlook, digital transformation, and strategy to balance expansion with sustained margins.

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Edited excerpts:

Max Healthcare recently announced a %6,000 crore expansion plan to scale up capacity by 10,000 beds over the next three-four years. How will this be funded?

■ Entirely through internal accruals. Last year, our earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) was around 2,200 crore, 65 per cent of which translated into free cash flow after tax and maintenance capex. That's about 1,500 crore last year, growing 20-25 per cent annually. So we're looking at roughly %1,800-1,900 crore free cash flow per annum. Over three years, that’s about %6,000 crore, enough to fully fund our expansion without taking on additional debt. Our debt-to-

EBITDA is low at 0.6-0.7, so we're comfortably positioned. Every rupee of profit we make is reinvested back into the business to scale capacity, enhance technology, and expand our footprint across high-demand regions.

Rapid capacity expansion often pressures margins. How do you plan to sustain Ebitda while new hospitals ramp up?