Indian hospital industry to remain strong in 2024, predicts ICRA

New Delhi: The leading credit rating agency, ICRA Limited in its outlook on hospital industry has predicted its strong performance in FY2024, on the back of healthy occupancy and strong ARPOB levels.

Kinjal Shah, Vice President & Co-Group Head – Corporate Ratings, ICRA Limited stated: “ICRA expects occupancy of its sample set to remain flattish at 64-65% in FY2024, while the ARPOB is expected to expand by 8-9%.”

Shah added: “Benefits from improving scale, cost optimization efforts, steady demand for margin-accretive elective procedures, and improving case and payor mix in addition to healthy international patient footfalls will support operating profit margins (OPM) of over 22-23% for the sample set companies in FY2024 as compared to 22.6% in FY2023.”

“Further, given the healthy accruals and low debt levels, debt metrics for the sample set companies are expected to remain strong in FY2024 despite ongoing capital expenditure towards capacity expansion. Thus, ICRA continues to have a stable outlook on the Indian hospital industry,” concluded Shah.