Aster DM Healthcare is charting an aggressive expansion and growth roadmap, as it nears completion of its merger with Blackstone-backed Quality Care. With a strong financial and operational outlook for FY27, the combined entity targets over 4,400 additional beds in the next three to four years, managing director Alisha Moopen told Mint in an interview.
The merger is expected to be complete in the current quarter ending June, well over a year after the deal was announced in November 2024. Post-merger, the hospital chain expects to operate 39 hospitals across 28 cities with over 10,600 beds, positioning itself among India’s largest healthcare providers.
On a proforma basis, the combined business reported revenues of ₹9,273 crore and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) of over ₹2,000 crore, with margins and return on capital employed at around 21% in FY26.
“Having a 10,000-bed base and adding [close to] 5,000 beds is a big undertaking… but we’re saying that having the benefits of scale and the synergies with the merger, will help us enable growth without diluting our margins,” Moopen said.
The company’s goal is to raise its margins from 21% currently to 200-300 basis points higher over the next three years, and sustain an annual revenue growth of over 20%, while continuing the expansion plan, she added.
In FY26, Aster DM posted an annual revenue growth of 12%, rising from ₹4,138 crore in FY25 to ₹4,643 crore in FY26. The growth was driven by a mix of factors, including adding clinicians, better utilization of assets and fixing system “leaks”.
Growth push
With the merger, a key focus would be on clinical synergies, said Moopen. “Because at the end of the day, your biggest resource is the doctor fraternity. So now, when you have this combination of these doctors from these two big platforms coming together, how do you utilize them most effectively and efficiently?”
The hospital chain also hopes to increase the share of complex, high-value specialties, which are currently over 50% of the overall mix. It sees headroom to expand this to 60-65% by strengthening capabilities in areas such as oncology, as it undertakes brownfield expansion projects over the next few years.
The expansion pipeline is split between 56% brownfield and 44% greenfield projects. Aster DM has a strong foothold in Kerala—which brings in 53% of its revenue—as well as in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Beyond its core markets, the expansion will consist of brownfield expansion of Quality Care’s facilities in its strongholds in south and central India.
Moopen pegged the chain’s total capital expenditure at ₹4,000–5,000 crore, or about ₹1 crore per bed, over five years.
After the merger, Aster DM Quality Care will emerge as India’s third-largest hospital operator in terms of total beds, after Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd and Manipal Hospitals.
The deal, the largest in the Indian healthcare space, had valued the combined entity at $5.08 billion when it was announced in November 2024. The merged entity is now valued over $7 billion, as both companies have scaled up their businesses, Moopen had told Mint in March.