Narayana Health, a hospital chain funded by well-known cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty, on Tuesday said that margins in mature hospitals should be sustainable.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Viren Shetty, executive director and group chief operating officer, said, “Improvement in mature hospitals was led by top three hospitals and aided by mid-tier hospitals. We believe it’s sustainable going forward as the patient flow is established, the reputation these hospitals are established and we do not believe it should slide anymore.”
On the margin front, Shetty said, “We believe that we will be able to maintain the growth rate in our EBITDA going forward. However, we have a new capacity that will be added across our network.”
Talking about expansion at the Cayman Islands, he said, “We have a 107-bed multispecialty hospital. However, the biggest gap for us has always been oncology. Therefore, we will be inaugurating our oncology block in one year time. In addition to that, we will also be looking at opening up the broader field of general medicines, paediatrics, cosmetics, dental and ophthalmology. So, this should help us provide a much wider range of services and improve the patient footfall and eventually occupancy at this unit.”
Furthers, Shetty said that Narayana Health is trimming debt, “Our debt to equity ratio has reduced to around 0.6 barring any large acquisitions that we are considering.
“Company is working on two acquisitions, one is in east India and another one is in north India. However, Narayana Health is not sure when exactly these deals will close. Negotiations have been going on for few months and will continue for few more months. Therefore, we may not need to increase our leverage cross the group. So, it would be paying off our debt and wouldn’t be increasing it significantly,” he added.