The Apollo Hospitals registered a turnover of Rs. 240.7 crore with a net profit of Rs.18.3 crore for the first half of 2003-04. This suggests a 26 per cent jump in its profits in comparison to the Rs.14.5 crore for the same period during the previous year.

According to a company release, the company Dupont ratio analysis reveals that the return on equity rose from 12.51 per cent for the year ended 31st March 2002 to 16.09 per cent for the half year ending on 30th September 2003. Highlights of the performance during the period were completion of two decades of service, First Med Hospital Revenue triples and developing Self Funded Insurance Package for NRIs.

Commenting on the performance, Dr Prathap C Reddy, chairman of Apollo said the half-year results have shown significant overall growth in all the core business units of Apollo. "Today Apollo stands for providing world class services to all our patients who come for treatment not only from different parts of the country, but also from different parts of the world. We have initiated a series of business in the healthcare sector and each one of it, especially the First Med Hospitals model has worked significantly for us" said Prathap Reddy, and added the mission of Apollo Hospitals group now was to sustain and build further on the quality standards set up by the hospital group for its own.

Revenues of First Med Hospitals have tripled over the first half of the previous year and average occupancy increased to 93 per cent and collection to Rs.3 lakhs average per day. Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd (AHEL) had started its second First Med branch in Chennai in April 2002 to provide emergency and trauma care to the neighboring areas. This 74 bedded acute care hospital has over 25 specialties including cardiology, neurology, nephrology, urology, orthopedics, radiology etc.

During the period, Apollo group added 35 new retail outlets, taking the number of Apollo Pharmacies to 137. Turnover from this segment has increased from Rs.81.2 crore to Rs.96.6 crore, registering an increase of 19 per cent.

The Apollo hospital group added 140 beds under management contract taking the total number of operational managed beds to 1450. Apollo is planning to increase this to 7000 beds within the next three years.

In the field of telemedicine, the hospital group is planning to expand its network of international centres to Jakarta, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain during the next quarter. In the last five years, the group has set up 35 international centres in India and abroad, enabling patients to gather information on various types of specialization, treatments and facilities available with the Apollo network of hospitals.

Further, the centres also facilitate travel, stay and other logistics. Ten of these information centres are linked to the telemedicine network thereby providing real time consultancy with the doctors. The information centres also enables doctors to set up camps and provide medical facilities to patients from outstation areas, said the release.