KOCHI: Aster DM Healthcare Ltd’s (Aster India) promoters have announced plans to soon refinance the loan raised by pledging a significant portion of their shares.
The refinancing will allow them to release the pledged shares, which will help the promoters effectively cool down a topic that has attracted considerable media attention over the past few quarters.
Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director, Aster DM Healthcare Ltd, said while talking to an analysts group that the shares were pledged by the Aster promoters to raise a bridge loan during the time of the segregation of Aster’s GCC operations as a separate entity last year.
Pledged shares
“We are right now working on refinancing the loan raised by pledging shares and the issue will be closed by the year end,” Alisha Moopen explained further.
What made this share pledge a hot topic in the media was that almost all the shares held by the promoters were pledged to raise the so-called bridge loan.
According to available statistics, promoters led by Azad Moopen, who own 41.9 per cent of the company’s shareholding, have pledged more than 98 per cent of their shares to raise the loans.
However, it’s not clear whether all the pledged shares will be redeemed through the refinancing planned by them or will they prefer to only bring down the volume of pledged shares from the present level.
Targeting 6800 beds
Aster India has plans to increase the bed capacity by 1900 to beyond 6,800 by 2027. Dr Azad Moopen, Founder and Chairman, Aster DM Healthcare, said hospital group is well-positioned to meet the increasing demand for advanced healthcare in India.
Aster has envisaged a capital expenditure (Capex) of Rs1,450 crore in the next three years, out of which, Rs200 crore has already been spent.
The remaining Rs1,250 crore will be invested over the next three years. Dr Moopen said that 9 Aster Hospitals are now accredited in the new Digital Standards Published by NABH signifying the group’s commitment to Digital Transformation.
H1 net profit at Rs171cr
Aster India has reported a net profit (post NCI) Rs171crore in the first half (H1) of the current financial year (FY25) compared with Rs91 crore a year ago, reflecting a growth of 88 per cent.
Revenue of the hospital group grew 18 per cent year on year to Rs2,088 crore in H1 FY25 in comparison with Rs1,772 crore in the same period last year.
During the second quarter (Q2), the revenue grew 16 per cent year on year to Rs1,086 crore compared with Rs934crore a year ago.
