Fortis Healthcare concludes divestments, will be profitable by end-FY16: Shivinder Singh

Fortis Heathcare has concluded the process of making its international divestments, Shivinder M. Singh, Executive Vice Chairman of Fortis Healthcare said on Thursday, May 28 at a conference call organised by the company in connection with its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 and for FY15.

Responding to a question from Business Today on why the company was still negative on its profit after tax (PAT) front despite the conclusion of the divestment process and a net debt to equity of 0.25x times and what it is doing about it, Singh said: "The P&L of the company does not demonstrate the performance and financials only of the India business. There are other costs and other related activities that are coming into the P&L including forex because of our international business, and after this quarter all that will get cleaned up."

He further said: "We are focusing on being PAT positive by the end of this financial year as an India business and we are pretty confident we will get there."

He says, the fourth quarter results gave him the confidence that they would be able to achieve this.

Some of the key numbers shared by the company were: Consolidated group revenues for FY15 were at Rs 4,140 crore as against Rs 4,759 crore for the previous year. Consolidated group revenues for Q4FY15 were at Rs 1,064 crore as against Rs 941 crore for the corresponding previous quarter.

Plus, consolidated PAT after minority interest and share in associates (PATMI) for FY15 was at (negative) Rs 144 crore as against Rs 123 crore in FY14. The gain recorded in FY 14 was primarily due to a one time exceptional gain arising as a result of the divestments of the company's international assets - Quality Healthcare, Hong Kong and Hoan My, Vietnam. Also, the consolidated PAT after minority interest and share in associates (PATMI) for Q4FY15 was at (negative) Rs 18 crore against (negative) Rs 77 crore in Q4FY14.

According to a press note released by the company giving these numbers, Fortis Healthcare divested the last of its international assets -  The Fortis Surgical Hospital, Singapore and RadLink Asia, Singapore for a consideration of SGD 55 million and SGD 111 million, respectively. Both these divestitures were consummated in April and May, 2015, respectively.

With this, the company says it has successfully completed a series of divestments and used the proceeds to pare debt and further intensify its focus on the India market. Also, it says, the net debt of the company as on March 31, 2015 was at Rs 1,183 crore, representing a net debt to equity of 0.25x times as compared to 0.17x times as on March 31, 2014.