Jupiter Life Line Hospitals Ltd (NSE: JLHL) Q3 2025 Earnings Call dated Feb. 07, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Ankit Ajay Thakker — Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer
Analysts:
Amait — Analyst
Pranav Chawla — Analyst
Abdulkader Puranwala — Analyst
Anjuna Shah — Analyst
Anya Desai — Analyst
Jigar Shah — Analyst
Karan Mehra — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
This is now being recorded good hello. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. You are connected to the Jupiter Lifeline Hospitals Conference Call. Please stay connected. This conference will begin shortly. Participants, we thank you for your patience. You are connected to the Jupiter Lifeline conference Call. Please stay connected. This conference will begin shortly Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Jupiter Lifeline Hospitals Limited Q3 and Nine Months FY ’25 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference, please signal the operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. This conference may contain certain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. I now hand the conference over to Dr Ankit, ED and CEO of Jupiter Lifeline Hospitals Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Ankit Ajay Thakker — Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. Thank you. Good evening to everybody. I thank you for joining us on our earnings call late Friday evening to discuss our business and financial performance for this quarter and nine months of FY ’25. I hope you could look at our financial results and presentations, which have just been posted on the website and stock exchanges. I am accompanied by Mr Anand Napte, our Chief of Business and Strategy; Ms, our business controller and Ms Suma, our Compliance Officer and company secretary.
Before we move to the updates of this quarter. As a part of our IPO objectives, we had an aim to establish new hospitals to take the total group tally to about 2,500 beds in Western India. We have already spoken about our Dombuli and the second Pune Hospital, which had given you visibility of 2,200 beds. We are now pleased to announce the acquisition of an over two acre plot of land in Mira Road. This will mark our sixth hospital and the third in the MMR region. This land was procured from the open-market through a local landlord financed entirely through internal accruals and equity reserves and has a cost of approximately INR75 crores. Our plan is as always to establish a full-service multi-specialty care hospital, which will have a capacity of around 300 beds. The project’s estimated capex will be about INR400 crores, which will include the land.
The financing of the remaining capex will be subject to the planning approvals, board approvals, etc., which will be communicated to you from time-to-time. Mira Panther region is a densely populated residential locality with a significant unmet demand for quality health services. Currently, the area lacks comprehensive high-end health facilities compelling the residents to rely either on local secondary care centers or they need to travel to or Mumbai for advanced medical treatment. The new hospital we proposed there will cater primarily to the micro markets of, Mira and the Vasai with our regions and will address a critical healthcare gap in that area. The second hospital of Pune in has now received the regulatory approvals.
And from next month onwards, that is March of ’25, we hope to start construction for that hospital as well. The first phase with a capacity of 200 odd beds should be operational in calendar year ’25, 28, sorry. The Indor hospital has recently added 78 new beds on 1st of January ’25. This brings the total bed capacity in Indore to 309 beds. We have executed this 1/4 before schedule and the capex for this development was a little under INR25 crores. That translates to roughly INR30 lakhs per bed for the new phase of construction. The project is advancing as per plan and is expected to be operational around Q1 of FY ’27. The numbers for this quarter income for this quarter stood at INR322 crores, which is a 17.7% increase Y-o-Y, EBITDA INR76.4% crores, which is a 21.5% increase Y-o-Y.
The EBITDA margin this quarter is 23.7%. The PAT margin is INR52.5 crores, which is a 20.1% increase Y-o-Y. The PAT margin is 16.3%. For the nine-month consolidated numbers, the revenue was INR934.8 crores, a 19.5% increase year-on-year. The EBITDA for nine months so-far is INR218.3 crores, again a 22% increase. The margin — EBITDA margin is 23.4%. The PAT is INR148.6 crores, increase of 13.2% year-on-year and the PAT margin so-far is 15.9%. The ARPOB for nine years has — this year has been 59,100 as compared to 53,600 in the same-period last year. The ALOS is now 3.88 as compared to 3.92. The occupancy for these nine months was 66.7% compared to 63.2% last year. The overall volume has increased from 6,51,500 to 7,27,500. The payer mix is insurance represents 55.4% of the revenue, 43.5% comes from self-payers and government schemes at 1.1%. So these are the big highlights.
With this, I open the floor for Q&A. Thank you.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on the touchstone telephone . If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of from JM Financial. Please go-ahead.
Amait
Yeah, thank you for taking my question and congrats to the management on good numbers. So first question I have is on the margin side. What levers do we have considering like is also is also more or less optimally occupied so what levers do we have to improve margins, which would take like margins performance
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Hi, so I lost your voice a little bit, but from what I would gather, you were asking for levers for margin expansion in all the three units. Is that correct?
Amait
Yes.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Okay. So in there is just one lever that is inflation-linked price hikes in Pune. Besides inflation-linked price hikes, there is a second lever also for occupancy growth, which you could see that in this quarter is around, I think 60% or so, so 65%. And in Indors, besides price hike and occupancy, the third lever is case-mix optimization, which I believe should last for another year, year and a half. So these are the three levers in different units.
Amait
So our margin for Tani unit would be more than 25%, right?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
It should be something like that, yes.
Amait
Got it, sir. So should we assume that these margins are typically the operational margins for the locality we have doctors, etc? Is that
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Correct
Amait
Sure. And the second question I have is if Thane particularly, considering that there was only one Jupiter corporate driven hospital, now two more are coming up, at least they have announced their plans. So in terms of talent, et-cetera, you are comfortable or do you think that inflation should be there on account of the competition on the doctors and the North, etc?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
So I think with the population of close to 30 lakhs or 3 million now has enough number of doctor representation out of those 30 lakh people who live here. So the native medical talent pool in is pretty high. And even today, there are, to be honest, very good doctors in Thane who don’t work with Jupiter, right, because there is only as many who can be affiliated two or three, 400-med hospital. So I don’t think either from the demand-side or from the talent availability side, there should be any challenge either for us or for the newcomers.
Amait
So thank you so much. I will join you. Yeah.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
For the last couple of quarters, we have said that besides one, even if there are a few more in, the demand is sufficient to neither bother us nor bother the new entrant. So yeah, that is — we continue with our view.
Amait
So second hospital which is coming up is closer to the Board road or where-is the exact decision?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Which one?
Amait
The second second hospital, the land which we acquired, is it closer to Road or is it?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
The Jupiter’s land you are saying?
Amait
Yes, yes.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Yeah. So yeah, you must-have read. So is not Zord. It is the name of the area in Mira Road, so it is in Mira Road it is not on it is an area called in Miral.
Amait
So got it. Thank you so much.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Okay.
Operator
Thank you. Participants to ask a question, you may press star and one. We have the next question from the line of Pranav Chawla from Ambit. Please go-ahead.
Pranav Chawla
Hi, sir. Sir, can you just briefly highlight what are the doctor — hospitals that are there in our pipeline and what will be their commencement pipeline? And in every phase, how many beds are we planning to get operational?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
So I will definitely walk-through it, it, but we have included one slide in the presentation for this, if you want to have a clearer picture at any date. Currently, we have three hospitals, Thana, Puna and Indo Thana capacities, 377 beds, Puna, Puna 386 and Indor is planned for 431 currently operating 309 so it has a scope to add 122 more the new hospitals that are coming up is planned for 500 beds. Puna 2 in BPRD is planned for 500 beds and is planned for 300 beds. So if you add all of them up, it goes to 2494, which is close to 2,500 for all practical purposes. So that is the pipeline.
Pranav Chawla
And which year do these hospitals come in?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
The Q1 FY ’26, ’27, Puna sometime calendar year ’28, Mira Road sometime calendar year ’29
Pranav Chawla
Okay. Okay. Got it. Sir, and what would be our case-mix? What would be our largest therapies, top three therapies?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
So we are what do you say full-service multi-specialty hospital where you don’t have any focused therapy area in any of the hospital and all the — all the branches are well-diversified.
Pranav Chawla
Okay, got it, sir. I’ll get back-in the queue.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Thank you, Branav.
Operator
Thank you. To ask a question, ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and one. The next question is from the line of Abdulkadar Pooranwala from ICICI Securities. Please go-ahead.
Abdulkader Puranwala
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, my first question is with regards to your expansion plans. So while we look at your history, you have been adding hospitals in, say, one hospital in each of, say, two to three years plan, while going ahead, what we are talking about is having one new hospital almost every year. So what I would like to know is basically what could be the P&L impact of all the three hospitals coming in? And at the same time, with the kind of the capex what you’ve lined-up, which is nearly say INR1,400 crores for these three hospitals, how do you plan to fund the entire capex?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Thank you, Abdul. So for the capex question, currently, we are sitting on something like INR250 crore odd INR250 plus odd crores of cash on our books. And I told you that the nine-month EBITDA this year is INR218 crores. With whatever simple extrapolations you want to do over a five-year period, you will see that the current cash and the internal accruals, which we will generate over the five-year period will add-up to the required capex number. So as far as we are doing these three hospitals, because they are also greenfield, which means the money has to be invested in a staggered way, not upfront, we will be able to deploy cash as we generate it through the running hospitals. So we will be able to maintain the debt-free status and fund these three hospitals. At future date, if there is something interesting in terms of opportunity, then the Board will evaluate it from time-to-time whether we need to fund more opportunity through debt, equity or the whichever way. So that is on the capex question.
The P&L question is that I think industry average currently is that most new greenfield hospitals in the country are breaking even maybe in sometime in the second year with small EBITDA losses in — or some EBITDA losses in the first year. So from the current EBITDA numbers of the three hospitals, you can project some blips in the first year of operation of each hospital and stabilizing in the second year and becoming positive in the third year. So with that, I think you will be able to build some kind of model
Abdulkader Puranwala
. Got it, sir. That is well-understood. Sir, second question is with regards to your Handor. So now that you have been able to add a bit a quarter ahead, when should we expect the balance 111 bids to be added at this facility?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
So we have just added 78. We might add one more ICU, about 10, 11 beds soon. But after that, there is no immediate plan to add more beds. So we were around 60-odd percent of occupancy before these beds got added. With addition of these beds, we would have slipped into 50 kind of occupancy. Till we don’t come back to 60%, 65%, we will not be discussing new bed addition. But once we could reach that 60%, 65% occupancy, we’ll think about new beds.
Abdulkader Puranwala
Got it, sir. And just final one, if I may. So with regards to your now that it will get commercialized in Q1 of fiscal ’27. So by what time would the doctor hiring and other nursing staff will start?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
So I think 1/4 before, three to six months before you start talking and in the quarter before you start, you should start getting people on-board. So that is a typical type line for all new greenfields.
Abdulkader Puranwala
Got it, sir. Thank you and wish you all the best.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may please press star and one. Next we have the next question from the line of Anjuna Shah from Shah Investments. Please go-ahead.
Anjuna Shah
Thank you for this opportunity, sir. So sir, I wanted to understand that a competitor is planning to enter the Thane market as our neighbor. So how do you perceive this competition and what strategies do we maintain or you know to have our market position intact?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Hi, Anjuna. So as I answered in the earlier question that I don’t think there is any great strategy to be honest. I think the inherent demand itself is quite high in this region and as the time passes, there is a definite replacement of unorganized and secondary care nursing home bed with organized and corporate multi-specialty hospital bed. So a combination of replacement of some beds and the unmet demand will mean that neither us nor them will have to have any extraordinary strategies. It is just you know you are here to serve the needs of the community and the community has a lot of unmet need. So yeah, I think it is much simpler than you think.
Anjuna Shah
So also, so we’re working towards setting up three new hospitals. So with respect to funding, how do we plan to finance these? Would we like bring on some debt on the book or would we raise further equity or would it be like a mix of both?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
So as I just answered, Abdul, for these three hospitals, we will not need more debt. Internal accruals and cash reserves will be sufficient to fund them. If we do take on additional projects, then we may need debt, equity or the combination of it, but when those opportunities arise, we will evaluate them at that point.
Anjuna Shah
Sure. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much, sir. That was really helpful.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and 1 to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Anya Desai from Bright Securities. Please go-ahead.
Anya Desai
Hi, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. I just had one question. Can you please share the ARPOB and occupancy rate for Q3 FY ’25?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Our and occupancy rate for Q3 FY ’25 is with me, but I need to pull it out, hold-on. So we have 65.7% of occupancy, the is 61,750. And what was the third question? Is these two?
Anya Desai
No, that’s it. I just wanted to know for Q3 FY ’25
Ankit Ajay Thakker
.7 and 61,700.
Anya Desai
Okay. Thank you so much.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, to ask a question, you may press star and one on your touchtone telephones. We have the next question from the line of Jigar Shah from Elevate Research. Please go-ahead. Jigar Shah, your line has been unmuted. You may proceed with your question.
Jigar Shah
Yeah, hello. Am I audible?
Operator
Yes, you are audible.
Jigar Shah
Yeah. Good evening, sir. Sir, I have a couple of questions. In Nine-Month FY ’25, what was our total capex excluding the recent land acquisition?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Nine-Month FY ’25, what was our total capex excluding the new land you are saying this yeah.
Jigar Shah
Yes, yes.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
It should be around INR100 odd crores, I think towards and Indon, I think. I don’t have the exact number on me now, but it should be around INR100 crores.
Jigar Shah
Okay. That helps. Secondly, with the Hospital set to commence operations in FY ’25, what level of EBITDA loss do we anticipate during initial couple of years?
Ankit Ajay Thakker
So we don’t have a formal guidance on EBITDA loss currently, but we do think that first year should be EBITDA negative and second year should be EBITDA breakeven. That is that is what we have for example.
Jigar Shah
Okay, okay. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Thank you. Participants are requested to please press star and 1 to join the question queue. We have the next question from the line of Karan Mehra from Mehta Investments. Please go-ahead.Karan, your line has been
Karan Mehra
Am I audible?
Operator
Yes, you are audible, sir.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Hi, Karan, we can hear you.
Operator
Karan, you may proceed with your question.
Karan Mehra
Yeah, am I audible?
Operator
Yes, you are audible.
Karan Mehra
Yeah. Good evening, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. Sir, most of my questions are answered. So I only have one question. If you can provide some insights into the demographics of the and the locality and how it influences our hospital growth potential. If you can throw some light here would be helpful.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Thank you. Sure. So Mirab, I am there? I don’t know are you from Mumbai?
Karan Mehra
Sorry
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Are you from Mumbai?
Karan Mehra
Yes,
Ankit Ajay Thakker
You would understand some geography if I talk about. So you are familiar with Thane, I guess. So just like Thane is to the eastern suburbs of Mumbai or the central line of Mumbai, Mira is to the western part of Mumbai. It is — it is a dense residential neighborhood which essentially houses people who go to work-in western Mumbai. It is not a commercial hub, it is mainly a residential hub. It is a very dense community and it does not really have health-care facilities of great stature today. Mira as a municipal corporation should have, I think a population of somewhere in the zip coat of 15 lakhs, then it is surrounded by two other dense areas. One is the Easter on the south and the corporation of Vir Naiga on the north. So with all of this together with — in, say, 30 to 60 minute driving distance, you would again have a population of 2 million, 3 million people who currently are essentially Mumbai in their mind, but don’t have the facilities of healthcare in the place they live. So this is the problem that we are trying to solve.
Karan Mehra
Understood, sir. Sir, thank you for sharing this my idea. Thank you and all the very best.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask questions may please press star and one at this time. We have no further questions, ladies and gentlemen.
I would now like to hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Ankit Ajay Thakker
Thank you. So thank you, everyone. I hope the questions were answered satisfactorily. If there are any more questions, you are most welcome to reach-out to us or the SGA team, our IR IR advisors. I wish all of you a very happy weekend ahead. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. On behalf of Jupiter Lifeline Hospitals Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines