A strong performance by the pharmacy business and new hospitals has boosted Apollo Hospitals Enterprise's sales and profits in the third quarter.
Net profit was up 41 per cent at Rs 64.6 crore and standalone revenues rose 19 per cent to Rs 714 crore.
According to Mr Akhileshwaran Krishnan, Chief Financial Officer, while Chennai remained flat, the newer hospitals in Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar displayed good growth, reporting increased occupancy and patient footfalls. Revenues of the hospital division increased by 16 per cent to Rs 490 crore.
The other growth driver has been standalone pharmacies which grew 29.6 per cent in revenues to Rs 224 crore. Apollo Pharmacy's EBITDA has grown to Rs 4.5 crore from Rs 90 lakh in the third quarter last year. Mature stores have reported good like-to-like growth in revenues, said the company.
“We see further traction in the pharmacy business next year,” said Mr Krishnan. Apollo Pharmacy's retail network had1,290 stores as on December 31, 2011. During the third quarter, 40 stores were added and seven underperforming stores were closed.
In the nine months ended December 31, 2011, standalone revenues grew 20.2 per cent to Rs 2,055 crore, while net profit was up 27.5 per cent to Rs 171 crore. Apollo Munich Health Insurance achieved a gross written premium of Rs 262 crore (Rs 140 crore). The BPO business Apollo Health Street revenues rose 13 per cent in the nine months to Rs 369 crore.
On Friday, the shares of Apollo Hospitals closed 0.77 per cent higher at Rs 623.40 on the BSE.