Tag: Abhay Soi

Rising popularity of high-cost robotic surgeries to boost revenue per bed: Max Healthcare

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Private hospital chain Max Healthcare Institute on November 7 said that given the seasonal nature of the business, it expects to outperform in the second half of the fiscal year compared to the first half in which it recorded a revenue of ₹3,361 crore.

In a post-earnings chat with CNBC-TV18, Chairman and Managing Director Abhay Soi spoke about the increase in demand for robotic surgeries. He said this year, the hospital chain did twice the number of robotic surgeries compared to the previous year.

“We have about 20 robots across the country, across most of our healthcare systems. And, the demand for that is increasingly moving up. Usually, it costs about ₹60,000 to ₹70,000 more for that sort of surgery but that is the low end. It will go up to ₹150,000 more as far as robotics is concerned.”

What is robotic surgery?

Robot-assisted surgery, or robotic surgery integrates advanced computer technology with a surgeon’s hands-on experience to assist in performing complex procedures. The robots replicate a surgeon’s hand movements to operate, thus, minimising risks due to unexpected hand tremors or jerks.

Robotic surgery leads to less tissue damage, minimal blood loss, faster recovery, micro-precision, greater flexibility while performing surgery, reduced risk of infection and less pain, according to Max Healthcare.

How the September quarter panned out for Max

The Delhi-based hospital chain’s revenue for the quarter was up 17% over last year, at ₹1,732 crore. The increase in revenue was attributed to an increase in the average revenue per occupied bed (ARPOBs), improved occupancy and better patient mix.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margin expanded to 28.7% from 27.7 % in the year-ago period.

Max Healthcare CMD’s remark came as

The hospital operator’s occupancy — the number of beds effectively occupied — stood at 77% in the second quarter of the fiscal while occupied bed days (OBD) i.e. the number of occupied beds for each day of the period grew by over 3% on year.

The average revenue per occupied bed (ARPOB) also improved to ₹74,600 in the second quarter as against ₹66,000 last year. The spike in ARPOBs further aided the improvement in operating metrics. However, on a sequential basis, ARPOB declined by ₹200. The firm expects to see an average revenue per occupied bed at ₹73,000 for FY24.

The company’s shares ended the day a little over a percent lower at ₹591 apiece.

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Covid-19 related hospitalisation almost gone; see medical tourism picking up: Max Healthcare

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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As Covid cases see a decline in the country and international flights return to normalcy, Abhay Soi, Chairman & MD, Max Healthcare, expects medical tourism to pick up soon. Soi said that medical tourism is back to around 3/4^th of pre-Covid levels.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, he said, “Business seems to be back. We see a lot of international medical tourism and India’s medical tourism should be back in the next couple of months.”

Soi said that Covid-19 is pretty much gone from a hospitalisation standpoint. He explained that they have a shortage of beds and are waiting for new capacities to come on stream. Going ahead, he expects average revenue per occupied bed and EBITDA per bed to be healthy. He shared that the pricing impact on the topline is around 1.5-2 percent.

Also Read: Max Healthcare falls over 5% after KKR affiliate sells 10% stake via block deals

He said, “We have a massive shortage of beds at hospitals now because we are operating in about 75 percent of occupancy and on a sustainable basis can do about 77-78 percent and international business, which is post lifting of international flight bans expected to come back to 100 percent or more in the next couple of months.”

Private equity major KKR’s affiliate Kayak Investment has sold 10 percent of its stake in Max Healthcare. The stake sale consisted of around 9.6 crore shares at Rs 340 a piece. Prior to the sale, KKR held around 37.5 percent in Max Healthcare.

Also Read: Fertility segment back to pre-COVID levels; international patients increasing: HealthCare Global

When asked about the stake sale, Soi said that he didn’t know the reason behind the same.  He further mentioned that KKR won’t be able to sell any of its stake in the next 90 days.

Watch the accompanying video for the entire interview

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Occupancy levels normalising at 70-73%; Max Lab seeing traction in non-COVID biz: Max Healthcare

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Abhay Soi, CMD, Max Healthcare, on Thursday, said that occupancy levels are normalising at around 70-73 percent. He also mentioned that occupancies in some hospitals are in fact beyond 80 percent. Additionally, he explained that elective surgeries saw a reduction due to Omicron wave.

“In January, when the Omicron wave came in, we didn’t see too many hospitalizations, but we saw a reduction in elective surgeries. So the occupancies that come down to 60 percent. Since the fear of Omicron has subsided, the numbers have gone up and as we speak, we are at about 70-73 percent occupancy levels. Things seem to be easing back to normalcy,” he said.

On Max Lab, he shared that the segment is seeing traction in non-COVID business.

“As far as Max Lab is concerned, we’ve been doubling down in this business. We’ve added more and more channel partners, about 40 percent in the last two quarters alone. As COVID-19 businesses came down, we’ve seen a massive buildup as far as the non-COVID business is concerned. So it is seeing very good traction. In the last two quarters, to a base of 440 channel partners, we have added another 260,” he said.

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On its home care segment, Soi said that the business is now profitable.

“We started home care business about five years ago, and we got 650 people doing this business; it’s amongst the largest, if not the largest home care business in the country as we speak and yet perhaps, the only profitable one,” he said.

On acquisitions, he said that they announced 4 of them. Max Healthcare is looking to double its capacity in 4 years and for this purpose, the company will use less than 50 percent of its internal accruals.

“All of these acquisitions that we have announced over the last six months – that’s for acquisitions, essentially – that along with the two imbedded brownfield projects that we have, should almost double our capacity over the next four years. However, the most interesting part is that we’re going to be using less than 50 percent of our estimated internal accruals over the next four years to fund this entire brownfield, Greenfield build-outs that we are doing. That leaves us with about half of our internal accruals free cash flows, as well as our entire balance sheet,” he explained.

Also Read: Pharmacy biz growing at 20%; will announce investors for Apollo HealthCo by March: Apollo Hospitals

Watch the video for the full interview.

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Are hospitals geared up for rising Omicron cases? Experts discuss

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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There’s been a surge in the number of COVID cases in the country. With Omicron and Delta variants spreading rapidly, CNBC-TV18 spoke to Abhay Soi, Chairman & Managing Director, Max Healthcare, and Dr Bhaskara Rao Bollineni, Managing Director, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, to get a sense of the on-ground reality and also their preparedness to tackle the growing numbers.

First up, Soi said that the rate of hospitalisation is very low.  He explained that in Delhi, Omicron positive cases in their hospitals have increased from 2 percent to 25 percent in the last two weeks. He noted that Delhi is seeing 25-30 percent of patients testing positive for Omicron.

“In Delhi-NCR about 25-30 percent of patients who are coming are Omicron positive. This number was 2-3 percent just a couple of weeks ago. So we see this inverting very quickly, but the rate of hospitalisation is extremely low,” he said.

Soi mentioned that since the total number of cases are expected to be higher in Omicron, thus hospitalisations may also be higher as a result.

Also Read: People with no travel history infected with Omicron, it means it’s spreading in community: Delhi health minister

On preparedness, he said that the hospitals are better prepared for COVID now. Since resources are finite, Soi said that they need to see the scale of Omicron cases.

On Molnupiravir, he said that he doesn’t see a significant revenue stream from such drugs.

Meanwhile, Bollineni also reiterated Soi’s point that hospitalisation is less but transmission is faster. However, he doesn’t expect it to be as dangerous as COVID first and second wave.

“As a disease, it will definitely spread like other flu or viral diseases, but it’s not going to be that dangerous as we have seen in the first and second wave. However, it doesn’t mean to be careless. We need to be very careful,” he said.

Also Read: COVID-19’s Omicron variant may lead to endemic stage: Maharashtra health official

He believes there’s a need to be vigilant as the long-term effects of the new variant is not known. According to him, the next two weeks will be crucial. He added that the second dose of the vaccination or a booster shot is needed.

“Those who have not taken the second dose (of COVID vaccine), they should take it because prevention is better than cure as next two weeks will be very crucial for the country,” Bollineni said.

Bollineni believes they are well geared up with respect to hospital infrastructure. He explained that out patient department (OPD) treatment with Monoclonal antibodies is working well.

For the entire discussion, watch the video

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Max Healthcare says India biz revenue higher than pre-COVID levels in Q2

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Max Healthcare posted a steady set of Q2 earnings. Revenue has seen a rise both sequentially, and on a year-on-year basis as the non-COVID business appears to have normalised. The company’s quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) gross revenues were up at Rs 1434 crore versus Rs 1385 crore. It had reported gross revenues of Rs 944 crore in the same period a year ago. The company reported a multi-fold jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 144.65 crore for the quarter ended September 30. It had posted a net profit of Rs 16.65 crore for the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Abhay Soi, CMD, Max Healthcare, shared details of the quarterly performance and the outlook.

He said, “If one were to look at the overall occupancy, while we did 73-74 percent pre-COVID, now it stands at about 75 percent with about 1 percent coming from COVID. So in any measure, this can be looked at as non-COVID. This is, in spite of the fact that international business is only one-third of pre-COVID levels. So that is something to look forward to in the coming quarters.”

He also confirmed that as far as revenue is concerned, the India business, at the end of Q2, was higher than FY19, FY20 levels.

On diagnostic business, Soi said, “Organically if you see, the number of partners, franchisees that we have, we have actually increased them by 25 percent. So we increased our 140 channel partners in the last quarter itself to a base of about 450. So that is a massive sort of investment in the organic part of things but we also looking at inorganic opportunities for consolidation and enhancing this business.”

On digital channels’ contribution to revenue, Soi said, “We have invested in phases and from very low numbers sequentially, it has moved up to about 11 percent of our total revenues and we are seeing significant growth in this.”

Click here: For latest news and updates on earnings

He further mentioned, “What it is enabling us to do at this stage is reaching more and more patients, our patients as well as the first-time patients, more effectively and efficiently; we are able to service their requirements. Right now, it’s at the outpatient department (OPD) stage. So, what it really does is as far as the margins are concerned, it helps us convert these patients to our in-patient department (IPD), which is really where the commercial benefit lies at this stage. So at this point in time, it’s about reach, it is about customer acquisition and less about profitability from the digital channel.”

For the full interview, watch the accompanying video.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Healthcare infrastructure need of the hour, says Max Healthcare’s Abay Soi

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Max Healthcare reported the highest-ever operating EBITDA in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 with an expansion in margins aided by non-COVID occupancies. Abhay Soi, Chairman and MD, Max Healthcare discuss the earnings as well as the current hospital occupancy picture.

“So far, a lot of the capital has been going towards funding companies for consolidation and less towards creating more healthcare infrastructure and that is the need of the hour,” he said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

“My view has been that there is more than adequate capital available for investment within the healthcare sector, so is there an opportunity in India across the board whether it is urban cities, tier-II cities, tier-III cities,” he added.

The company is still awaiting clarity as far as the COVID package is concerned from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and all the banks.

“It seems that it is going to be perhaps subsidised loans up till 2022 and 2023 which allows you to do medium-term investment but for long-term investments, you require loans for 10-15 years,” he said.

“I don’t see pressure on margins so to say because the international business had only come back to 60 percent of pre-pandemic level. We have also seen a huge amount of proliferation of insurance policies being sold to customers and that is a segment which is growing rapidly,” he said.

On the home care package for COVID patients, he added, “It is about Rs 80 crore business for us. It has been growing at a very rapid pace. We see a huge amount of potential in this. It gave us a major fillip during COVID. Home care across major metros has gone up significantly during this period.”

For the full interview, watch the accompanying video

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India to rope in private sector to expand COVID vaccination drive; Experts discuss preparedness

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India’s vaccination drive is all set to enter the second phase starting from March 1. People above 60 years of age and those above 45 years having co-morbidities will be allowed to take COVID vaccine at both government and private hospitals.

Health ministry has identified 10,000 government centres and 20,000 private centres to roll out the second phase. Vaccination at government hospitals will be free, while those who choose private facilities will have to bear the cost.

Sources tell CNBC-TV18 the health ministry is in talks with private hospitals, vaccine manufacturers and other government departments on the cost as well as preparedness for the second phase of the vaccine drive.

CNBC-TV18 has learnt that private hospitals have proposed a price of Rs 400 per vaccine including the administration charges.

But the ministry is still considering various proposals for an affordable and competitive price.

Watch accompanying video of Abhay Soi, Chairman and Managing Director of Max Healthcare; Dr Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman of Manipal Hospitals and Dr Rahul Pandit, Director of Critical Care Department at Fortis Hospitals, and also a member of the Maharashtra COVID Task Force; discuss how prepared are private hospitals to roll out the vaccination programme with just three days to go for the second phase to begin.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow