Max Healthcare Plans Rs 5,000 Cr Capex to Add 4,200 Beds by FY28

Max Healthcare Plans ?5,000 Cr Capex to Add 4,200 Beds by FY28

Max Healthcare is preparing for significant growth, and plans to spend more than ?5,000 crore in capital expenditure over the next three to four years, Managing Director Abhay Soi shared in an exclusive interview.

The investment will be nearly all funded by internal accruals and is intended to increase the company’s bed count from 5,000 to 6,500 by FY25, and to 9,200 by FY28–one of the largest expansions in the country's hospital sector.

Greenfield and brownfield projects are already underway across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Lucknow, and Nagpur. Max is becoming increasingly less of a metro-centric operator and transitioning into a pan-India healthcare platform, and remains on track to open facilities in the Eastern region and Southern region, and in particular Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, and Guwahati, creating a national presence.

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Currently underway is construction on a new 500-bed facility, which will be located at Mumbai’s Nanavati Max Hospital. Soi dismissed any investor concerns regarding overcapacity, citing India’s rapidly ageing population, which will cross 300 million aged 60+ in the next 15 years. “India’s need healthcare will increase multi-fold, but where are the beds?” he said.

Soi, who is considered a turnaround expert, stated that Max Healthcare is looking to acquire businesses in tertiary care, focusing on oncology, transplants, cardiology, neurology, and orthopaedics, to further its depth. Analysts, such as Jefferies, are still bullish on Max, referring to it as an "inflection point" regarding growth acceleration. Soi dismissed concerns about hospital costs, pointing out that revenue per bed only increases by 7-8% a year. He concluded, "India is still the world's cheapest healthcare."