Metropolis Healthcare Looking North To Fuel Growth, MD Ameera Shah Says

Watch | MD Ameera Shah on Metropolis Healthcare’s Q2 performance and more

Metropolis Healthcare Ltd. said it’s focusing on markets in the northern and eastern regions as the diagnostic firm looks to expand operations.

“The markets that are growing extremely fast for us are the north and east of India. Specifically markets like Delhi, Kolkata and pockets of Punjab are actually doing very well for us and we want to continue to expand these markets,” Managing Director Ameera Shah told BloombergQuint in an interview.

Metropolis Healthcare is present across 19 states, especially in western and southern parts of India. It offers services in 197 cities across the country via self-owned and third-party owned patient service centres.

“One of the things we’ve done recently in Delhi is we’ve moved to a much larger facility, which creates far more capacity and production and therefore gives us an ability to play even more seriously in that market and make Delhi the hub for all of North India,” Shah said.

Also, volume growth of Metropolis Healthcare—which conducts routine diagnostic tests, semi-specialised tests and specialised tests for individual patients and institutional customers—has improved over the past few quarters, aided by aggressive network expansion with its focus on business-to-consumer segment over the past three years, according to an ICICI Securities’ note.

Shah said, “Surat is a focus city for us. It’s one of the five cities where we have a large B2C presence. We are the leader.” The final goal in these five cities, she said, is to move closer to a 25 percent market share.

Metropolis Healthcare Q2 Results: Key Highlights (Year-on-Year)

• Revenue up 15 percent to Rs 223.3 crore.
• Net profit up 41 percent to Rs 42.9 crore.
• Ebitda up 28.1 to Rs 62.7 crore.
• Margin at 28.1 percent vs 25.3 percent.