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Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Fortis Healthcare back in black with 14-crore profit

Fortis Healthcare India posted a net profit of 14 crore for the quarter ended June 30, on the back of higher sales and drop in interest payments, compared with a loss of 14.3 crore in the same period last year.
The company's consolidated operating revenue rose 43% to 483 crore during the quarter. Its interest payments in the quarter halved to 30 crore from a year earlier. Last year, the company had raised money from banks to fund its unsuccessful bid for Singapore-based Parkway Health.

The Delhi-based company's share price closed at 160.05, up 2.53% at the Bombay Stock Exchange.
At present, the company has about 4,000 operational beds, of which around 800 were added during the past 12 months. The company has been aggressively expanding building new hospitals organically, alliances or buyouts. "Our hospitals are also offering new services," Aditya Vij, CEO at Fortis Healthcare said.

The company said it plans to set up another four hospitals, which will add 600-700 beds, in addition to the six hospitals with a bed capacity of 1,400 it announced earlier this month. With these expansions, it will have a total bed capacity of about 10,400.

Meanwhile, the company has delayed its revised filing of draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with market regulator Sebi for the public issue of its diagnostic chain.

CEO Aditya Vij said the company has not yet filed the DRHP. Without specifying the timeline, he said the company would launch the IPO at a 'favourable market' condition.

Last quarter, the management said it would file the revised documents in June. It has to refile the documents with the regulator because Fortis Healthcare bought a 74.59% stake in Super Religare in May for 804 crore, after the diagnostic chain had filed the original DRHP.

The company also plans to set up another 25 low-cost hospitals in next three years in tier-II and tier-III cities under a new brand.