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

(Edited by : Ankit Gohel)

First Published:Jun 1, 2021 12:45 PM IST