Dr. Agarwal's Health Care Limited (AGARWALEYE) Q3 FY2026 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q3 and 9 months ended December 31, 2025 earnings conference call hosted by Dr. Agarwal's Health Care Limited. [Operator Instructions] I now hand the conference over to Ms. Aashna Dharia, Head, Investor Relations from Dr. Agarwal's Health Care Limited. Thank you, and over to you, Aashna.

Thank you, Ryan. A very good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Dr. Agarwal's Health Care Q3 and 9 months ended December 31, 2025 Earnings Call. From the management side, we have Dr. Adil Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer; Dr. Ashar Agarwal, Chief Business Officer; Mr. Rahul Agarwal, Chief Operating Officer; Dr. Vandana Jain, Chief Strategy Officer; and Mr. Yashwanth Venkat, Chief Financial Officer. We've also released the financial results, press release and investor presentation, all of which are available on our website and the exchanges as well. Before we continue, we want to remind everyone that this call is being recorded, and the transcript will be made available on our website afterwards. Additionally, please be aware today's discussion may include certain forward-looking statements, which should be considered in the light of the risks our business faces. Please refer to the detailed statement on Page 2 of the investor presentation. It is now my pleasure to hand over the call to Dr. Adil Agarwal, our Chief Executive Officer, who will share his opening remarks and insights. Dr. Adil, over to you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have lost the line of the management. Please stay connected while I reconnect the management. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank for your patience. We have the management line reconnected. Dr. Adil, you may proceed.

Thank you, Aashna and Ryan. A very good morning to all of you, and a warm welcome to the Q3 FY '26 earnings call of Dr. Agarwal's Health Care Limited. Let me begin by providing you all an update on the performance of the company. For the 9 months ended December 2025, the company reported a total income of INR 1,548 crores, up 20.8% year-on-year, while revenue from operations rose 21.2% to INR 1,516 crores. We delivered a robust IndAS EBITDA of INR 440 crores, reflecting a 23.6% year-on-year growth, with margins improving by 64 basis points to 28.4%. Our profit after tax grew 74.3% year-on-year to INR 118 crores with PAT margins expanding by 234 basis points to 7.6%. Moving on to the third quarter performance. I'm pleased to share that we delivered a robust and well-rounded quarter, reflecting strong execution across our network. For the third quarter, the company reported a total income of INR 540 crores, up 21.9% year-on-year, while revenue from operations rose 23% to INR 530 crores. Q3 also delivered a robust IndAS EBITDA of INR 155 crores, reflecting a 21.3% year-on-year growth with margins of 28.4% for Q3. Profit after tax grew 55% to INR 44 crores, while PAT margins expanded by 171 basis points to 8.1% for Q3. Next, I would like to share our footprint and network growth update. During the 9 months ended December 2025, we served over 22 lakh patients and performed at nearly 2,38,283 surgeries. Every day, nearly 10,000 patients now walk into our facilities across our network, up from about 8,000 in the previous financial year. This represents a 25% growth in walk-ins. This consistent growth in footfall reflects not just the scale of our operations, but also the strength of our brand recall and our ability to deliver quality eye care close to where patients live. During the year, we continue to invest in the expansion and stabilization of our newly launched facilities. The ramp-up across recently launched facilities has been faster than earlier phases, supported by strengthening brand equity, reinforcing our confidence in scaling expansion more aggressively while continuing to deliver superior clinical outcomes. In India now, we have a total network of 253 facilities across 14 states and 5 union territories covering 148 cities. Our presence is well diversified now with 31% of our facilities in Tier 1 markets, 62% in other markets and 7% located internationally. We expand our footprint by commissioning 14 new greenfield facilities this quarter, further strengthening our reach and capacity. These included 9 secondary centers, including 1 in Tamil Nadu in Tirupattur, Kolhapur in Maharashtra, Kanakapura Road in Bangalore and Raichur in Karnataka. We also launched a project in Haryana in Gurgaon, Chandkheda and Baroda in Gujarat, Preet Vihar in Delhi and Ongole in Andhra Pradesh, along with 5 primary centers across Tamil Nadu and Odisha. Let me now turn to an update on our clinical excellence initiatives and our growth in complex surgeries. For the 9-month period ending December 2025, high-end cataract surgeries accounted for 43.5% of total cataract procedures, 45,459 surgeries were done in total, an increase of 43.5% over the same period last year. Within the high-end surgeries, robotic cataract surgeries, what we call as the Femto Cataract, grew by a robust 83% year-on-year, rising from 2,616 to 4,400 procedures. As shared in our previous earnings call, new robotic cataract systems have now been installed at our Velachery facility in Chennai and our Delhi facility, which is now performing close to 60 such surgeries on a monthly basis on average. Additionally, we are strengthening our advanced surgical capabilities with the addition of robotic systems in Gurgaon and in Vashi. Lenticular Procedures, what we call as the SMILE surgeries for refractive, increased 17.7% year-on-year from 4,223 to 4,970 surgeries, while retinal surgeries totaled 940 surgeries, up 23.2% from last year. We also did a total of 792 corneal transplants over this entire period. We continue to invest in cutting-edge technology to enhance diagnostic accuracy and surgical outcomes. Recent additions include the Catalys and ELITA systems at our Gurgaon Center as well as the LUMERA 300 and Orteli Faros at our Preet Vihar center. On the research and capability building front, our clinicians have contributed to over 340 publications in leading international medical journals over the past 3 decades, underscoring our commitment to advancing ophthalmic science. During the quarter, nearly 50 doctors underwent advanced training across multiple specialties as part of our continuous learning and development initiatives. Now moving on to some business updates. Let me first begin with our region-wise performance. Our Southern region continues to be our largest market, contributing to 63% of our total group revenues. This region delivered INR 950 crores of revenue, representing a strong growth of 22.4% year-on-year. We have 172 facilities located across our Southern states, and this includes 12 new additions in this year with 4 new facilities being added in Tamil Nadu, 5 in Karnataka, 2 in Andhra and 1 in Kerala. We remain focused on sustaining our market leadership in both Tamil Nadu and Telangana, while further increasing adoption of the latest technologies in these regions. In Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, we are strengthening our network presence in both these markets by expanding significantly into high potential underserved markets through strategic facility opening. Now coming to the West region. This region contributes to about 16% of our overall group revenues and delivered INR 244 crores of revenue, up by 18.4% year-on-year despite some impact of the festive season during the quarter. We currently have 46 facilities in the West region, including 6 new facilities which are opened in these 9 months. Maharashtra, as we have highlighted earlier, continues to be a key region for us as we aim to deepen our presence in the underserved regions of the state whilst further expanding into the micro markets of our metro cities such as Mumbai and Pune. In Gujarat, we remain optimistic given the strong performance of our new centers in Surat. We also commissioned a secondary facility in Chandkheda in Ahmedabad and also launched a facility in Baroda. We plan to further strengthen our footprint in the state by adding more facilities and accelerating adoption of advanced technologies across the region. Now coming to the North region. This contributed to 8.3% of our group revenues, and this region reported INR 126 crores of revenue this quarter, up by 19.7% year-on-year. We currently operate 24 facilities in the entire North region. Continuing from our previous update on our entry into the Delhi NCR region, operations have commenced on a strong note with strong traction in patient volumes and steady month-on-month revenue growth. Building on the success of our Delhi main flagship facility, we launched a secondary facility in Gurgaon in November 2025. December marked its full month of operations during which it witnessed strong patient traction. We have also commissioned facilities in Preet Vihar and Rajouri Garden, which is currently in the early ramp-up phase with focused efforts underway to build local market awareness and progress on key accreditation milestones. Overall, performance remains strong across regions with all markets delivering healthy double-digit year-on-year growth. Now moving on to our vintage performance of this year. Facilities operational prior to FY '22 contributed to about INR 1,125 crores, registering a year-on-year growth of 14.2%, underpinning our strong same-store sales growth performance. Facilities opened in FY '23 generated INR 187 crores, growing at 14.3%, while those launched in FY '24 delivered INR 124 crores of revenue, achieving a strong growth of 18%. Moving on to our next business update. Our planned facility openings for each quarter of the current year. Up to December 2025, we strengthened our network by adding 38 new facilities, out of which 23 were surgical centers. Over the next quarter of this financial year, we plan to launch another 16 centers, including 5 in the South, 5 in the West and 6 in the North. Out of the total planned additions, 11 facilities are expected to be surgical centers. So to conclude, our sustained focus on operational efficiency and disciplined execution has driven a strong performance across the first 3 quarters, and we are well positioned to meet the guidance committed at the beginning of the fiscal year. Now, I would like to hand it over to our CFO, Mr. Yashwanth Venkat, who will take a deeper dive into our financial performance.

Thank you, Dr. Adil. I'll begin with the operational update. Surgical services continue to be the main revenue driver, contributing 67% to the group revenue. Diagnosis consultations and other nonsurgical treatments contributed 11.6% and the sale of optical products and pharmacy items accounted for 21.5%. For year-to-date December 2025, we performed 2,38,283 surgeries, marking a 11.6% year-on-year growth. Cataract surgeries remained the largest contributor, accounting for approximately 72.7% of total surgeries followed by refractive surgeries at around 5%. Volumes for cataract and refractive surgeries grew 9.6% year-on-year, while other surgeries on a blended basis recorded a growth of 18.9%. Our payor mix for YTD December 2025 stood at 62.4% from cash, 28.5% from insurance and TPA and 9.1% from government schemes. The domestic payor mix stood at 7.9% from cash, 22.9% from insurance and TPA and 6.3% from government schemes. Moving on to the financial section. I'll start with the revenue split. The group's revenue from operations grew by 23% year-on-year, reaching INR 530 crores in Q3 FY '26 compared to INR 431 crores in Q3 FY '25. Revenue from operations in India stood at INR 480 crores, reflecting a growth of 23.1% despite unseasonal rains in our core markets and impact on the business due to festivals. This growth was supported by near equal contributions from both volume and value of close to 13%, with the remaining contribution coming from new centers opened in FY '25 and FY '26. Gross margin remained stable year-on-year and decreased slightly quarter-on-quarter despite a higher contribution of surgeries in segment mix with high-end cataract procedures rising to 26.6% in YTD December 2025 when compared with FY '25 of 24.6%. Doctor and employee costs cumulatively have increased by 140 basis points to 33.4% of total revenues for Q3 FY '26 as compared to Q3 FY '25. I would also like to briefly address the impact of the new labor codes. We have undertaken a detailed evaluation of the labor codes across the group based on the information currently available and the provisions notified so far. Our existing salary structures and employee benefit policies are already broadly aligned with the requirements of the labor codes and the incremental impact for us is not material currently. We'll continue to monitor the finalization of central and state rules and any further clarifications from the government, and we'll make appropriate adjustments if required. Other expenses as a percentage of total revenue have reduced to 15.5% of total revenues. A total of INR 95 crores in loans have been repaid from IPO proceeds, INR 128 crores in Q4 FY '25 and INR 67 crores in YTD December '25, leading to lower finance costs and higher profitability versus the same quarter last year. From 75.1%, the share of profit after tax attributable to owners has expanded to 79.1% in YTD December 2025, signaling improved profitability in the holding company. Thank you all. We'll open the floor to questions.

[Operator Instructions] We take the first question from the line of Binay Singh from Morgan Stanley.

Congratulations on another steady quarter. Two questions from my side. When we look at the surgery mix for the quarter, taking from the YTD numbers, we know that the cataract surgery growth has slowed down to around 4%. But at the same time, the refractive surgery growth has risen quite sharply. So could you comment on these trends, in fact? And also typically, we see refractive March quarter tends to be the biggest, but this time, your December itself is very strong. So how should we see that trend going ahead? So that's the first question.

Binay, thanks for the question. I will just request our COO, Mr. Rahul Agarwal, to just take this.

So Binay, actually, cataract has been quite strong this quarter. We have grown by almost 18.5% [Audio Gap]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have lost the line of the management. Please stay connected while I reconnect the management. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management line reconnected. Binay, if you could please repeat the question for the management.

Binay, I'm okay, we have to -- we can just start off. So as I was saying, our cataract for this quarter has been stronger at 18.5% growth. In fact, refractive has been slower for us this quarter and largely for this year. It's more to do with the overall industry being slightly slow on the refractive side this year. Hopefully, we'll bounce back on refractive next year. That's how we are seeing it. This quarter, I think from a cataract perspective, which is the bulk of the business that's coming in has been fairly strong.

So just to clarify, you're saying the number of surgeries are up 18%?

The value is up 18% and the number is up 13.7% on cataract.

Okay. Okay. No, I'll separately take this and share. And similarly, when I do the emerging facility revenue growth for this quarter, therein also, we see that the mature facility revenue growth has picked up, whereas the emerging facility revenue growth has slowed down. So again, this is subtracting the 9-month versus last presentation data.

Binay, Yashwanth here. See, just a small clarification. See, if you go to the investor deck on Slide 13, it is better to look at the revenue growth on a vintage-wise basis, Binay, because the mature facility definition is a rolling definition. So it will not be appropriate to calculate. So if you look at your FY '22 -- up to FY '22 centers on a YTD basis, it is close to about 14.2%. For the half year, it was about close to around 13.5% to 13.8%. So similarly, other vintages also, if you can calculate, that would give you the right picture, Binay.

Right, right. And just lastly, if you could share the CapEx number for the year? How much have you done YTD? And also, what was things contribution this quarter? That's it.

So on CapEx, we have done about close to INR 275 crores, Binay, out of the INR 310 crores, which we had committed. And on the spends in the subsidiary in for the Cathedral Road facility, we have done close to about INR 35 crores out of INR 70 crores, which were committed, Binay.

We take the next question from the line of Ananya Khanna from Alpha Alternatives.

Sir, first of all, congratulations on a steady quarter. Secondly, my question to you is you mentioned you commissioned a few new facilities, right? So I want to understand when those are supposed to sort of become operational? And when are you expecting for them to break-even?

I think Dr. Adil had mentioned about commissioning of a couple of facilities in Delhi, one in Preet Vihar, which got launched at the end of December and one in Rajouri Garden, which has already got launched in January. See, in terms of a break-even, currently, it will be difficult for us to comment on Delhi facilities. However, we expect the facilities to broadly break-even around the 15 to 18-month kind of a number. That's a very broad estimate.

All right, sir. But you also mentioned a few other facilities apart from the ones in Delhi. I'm talking about the primary health centers, et cetera. So what about those?

Okay. So we have totally launched about 23 surgical centers and about 14 primary centers. Out of these 23 centers, I will just give you the exact breakup. Just give me a second. Yes. So we launched 5 new facilities in -- 4 new facilities in Tamil Nadu, 5 new facilities in Karnataka, 2 in Andhra and 1 in Kerala. If you look at the Western region, we have also launched 2 new centers in Baroda -- 1 in Baroda and 1 in Chandkheda, which is in Gujarat. And we launched in Kolhapur and 1 in Aurangabad in Maharashtra. The unit metrics of our centers which have been launched in our core markets are pretty much meeting the estimates in terms of what we have previously guided. The centers which have been opened in some of these noncore markets, as Yashwanth has just explained, will meet break-even in about 12 to 15 months. That is the current run rate of these centers.

We take the next question from the line of Sucrit D. Patil from Eyesight Fintrade Private Limited.

I have 2 questions. The first question to Mr. Adil is, taking a slightly forward-looking lens as the network continues to scale, how does the management balance capacity expansion, doctor availability and case mix to protect returns on capital? What are the operating signals typically that tell you whether to accelerate expansion in a cluster or fall and optimize the current existing centers that you have? That's the first question. I'll ask the second question after this.

So the first important metric for you to look at is despite the scale of our expansion. So like I had mentioned, we have launched about 52 facilities in the last 12 months. In these last 9 months alone, we have added about 37 new facilities. The goal is to end up at about 52 to 55 facilities by the end of this year. One of the healthiest signs which we believe of us expanding the right way and us being able to scale up our operations in the right manner is if you see our EBITDA margins, we've been able to maintain them at a 28.5% EBITDA margin, right? So despite us being able to scale up this many new centers, we've been able to maintain our margins, which basically means that we are ramping up our new centers a lot faster to break-even. That's the first sign. A second very important sign is our same-store sales growth. That is a very, very important metric that we track. And like Rahul had mentioned, our same-store sales growth is north of about 13.5%, which is again a very, very healthy sign. One of these signs means that the fact that you are generating -- able to generate significantly healthy cash flows, which you're actually able to deploy it towards ramping up more centers. So I would say these 2 are very, very important signs for us, which we look at. How are you able to scale up your new centers? At the same time, what is the kind of same-store sales growth you are able to maintain? If you're able to do these significantly and you're actually able to better your margins or at least maintain your margins you're at, you will start to see the return on capital improving over the next 2 to 3 years, which is what we've already demonstrated over the last 9 months.

My second question to Mr. Venkat is from a financial monitoring point of view, beyond the reported margins, what internal unit level metrics do you track most closely to assess whether the pricing power, utilization or cost efficiency is trending according to the way that you have planned or it's starting to weaken across the board? Just want to understand your view on this.

Yes. See, every center in terms of the performance is tracked at the branch EBITDA level. The branch operating margin of every center is tracked on a monthly basis wherein we go about looking at projection for the particular year. First, when we start the center, we have a 5-year projection, and we also track it on a monthly basis. Here, if the center starts to say, not break-even within the stipulated particular time for that particular market, then we have -- we bring in a few interventions in terms of both revenue ramp-up as well as we also look at unit level costs such as your doctor cost, employee costs and also what we spend on marketing and a few other administrative expenses as well, which are in our control.

We take the next question from the line of [ Nikhil from SIMPL ].

Congrats on good set of numbers. Sir, so my question was, if I look at our revenue per facility over like last 9 months, across regions, we've seen that there is a drop in revenue per facility, while our surgical mix has improved. So can you just help us understand why are we -- why the revenue per facilities are dropping across the regions? So -- and how does this play out over a period of time, like over last 5, 10 years, how would these numbers play out?

Nikhil, a small correction. See, when you're calculating the revenue per facility, you have to break it down into surgical as well as primary. For example, I think you are using the Slide 12 on the investor deck while calculating the revenue per facility. So in terms of the actual -- the revenue per surgical facility has grown at a healthy CAGR of about 14% to 15% over the last 4 years. My -- if you get into Slide number 13, there we have given the breakup of the -- both the mature and emerging facilities, both the surgical as well as the nonsurgical. So in terms of the nonsurgical facilities, they contribute about close to 1.5% to 2% of the overall group revenue. So if you remove that from your working, then you can see that there's a clear track of increase in revenue per surgical facility, Nikhil.

Okay. And so where I'm coming from is like if I look at only East as a region and consider it based on the revenue which we have mentioned and divide by the number of facilities, the average was -- for last year was around INR 2 crore, which today, like based on the rough calculation comes to INR 1.57 crores, INR 1.6 crores. While our surgical, like the number of patients and the surgery mix and everything has improved. So is it like when we go -- and East is also a geography which is the number of facilities are less. So is it like when we enter these new geographies, we have to play the pricing game in order to get the footfalls? I'm just trying to understand from how do we develop these new geography perspective.

Okay. Nikhil, I'll answer your question. In East, currently, I'll just take Odisha as a market, we have 3 facilities. So we launched the third surgical facility just last year. It has not even completed 1 year of full operations. So generally, when the facility is launched, it also takes, say, about close to 3 years to reach a certain level of maturity. So the couple of other facilities in Odisha have been -- have continued to grow in the mid-teens kind of a number where there is a significant amount of maturity for those facilities as well. So -- and one more point is when the facility gets launched, some of them would not have completed 1 whole year of operations as well. So when you calculate the data by looking at whatever we have presented in the investor deck, there's a slight skew to that as well.

Okay. Second question is, see, if I try to remove like from the console, the stand-alone numbers and try to see the revenue from the subsidiaries come to around INR 80 crores for this quarter. And here, I think largely it's Thind, which is the major revenue contributor. And if I do a P&L subtraction, I get like for last 9 months, the subsidiaries are operating at almost 37%, 38%, where again, Thind is the major contributor. Now what I'm trying to understand is that I know Thind is an established chain in Punjab. And if I draw comparables to Tamil Nadu, which is Dr. Eye (sic) [ Dr. Agarwal's Eye Hospital ], which is the other subsidiary, even that does not operate at such high kind of a margin. So what is the differential that we are able to operate at such high margins in a specific entity like Thind, while even in our markets like Tamil Nadu, we are operating at 28% to 30%. So what brings this differential? And can we close these differentials over a period?

See, Thind is a unique case where bulk of the revenue comes from a single facility based out of Jalandhar. There are no further major cost as far as the regional resources and corporate resources are [Audio Gap]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have lost the line of the management. Please stay connected while I reconnect the management. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management line reconnected. Sir, please proceed.

Yes. As I was explaining, see, Thind, the majority of the revenue comes from a single facility, and there are no costs as far as the regional resources are concerned and very minimal cost as far as corporate is concerned. Our subsidiary, AEHL, which is -- predominantly consists of mature facilities and operating out of Tamil Nadu, there also the margins are at close to about 33% as far as the corporate margins are concerned. When you also add back your regional and corporate costs, those margins would be slightly more comparable to what the current margins are at TECPL.

Okay. And last question. See, based on the brand equity that we have in Thind, my idea would have been -- and this could -- I could be wrong here, that Punjab and Haryana have always been a sister states, there would have been a patient flow from nearby states as well. So have we not expanded in Punjab beyond when we had acquired this entity? Or like what's -- how many new facilities we've opened based on the brand equity? Or if you can just share what have we done with this beyond what it was there?

I'll request Dr. Ashar Agarwal to come in. He's our Chief Business Officer, and he's heading the entire expansion piece. He will give you an update in terms of what's happening.

Nikhil, basically, we are working right now on 3 new facilities under the Thind banner. Ludhiana is under work right now. So it should launch soon, but the other 2 centers are a little more futuristic. So there is an expansion play coming into Thind as well. And Haryana is already underway. Gurgaon has already launched, but that is under the Dr. Agarwal's banner.

We take the next question from the line of Tushar Manudhane from Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited.

So just coming back on the surgery revenue growth, while the revenue growth has been very healthy for the quarter, but number of surgeries growth rate has been a little soft. If I put that 238,000 surgeries into different categories, both overall number of surgeries as well as if I have to break that into cataract and refractive. If you could just explain that first.

Okay. Tushar, this is Rahul. From an overall surgery perspective, if you see, while the surgery growth is at 11.6%, we are also getting a lot of premiumization, which is happening. So you'll have to see the overall growth from both the number and the value perspective. One of the things that Adil also mentioned initially was that we are doing a lot of technology upgradations in a lot of our centers, both on refractive as well as on cataract. In cataract, we have added quite a few centers with our Catalys machines and Ziemer machines, which are the ones which do Femto Cataract for us or robotic cataract as the market knows it has. So those are very, very value accretive. And as the numbers go up there, that's where we are seeing a huge impact coming in into our premiumization play. Just to give you an example, only the Femto Cataract numbers that we had achieved last quarter was to the tune of almost 1,800 surgeries. So that's almost a mix of -- if I just look at our high-end surgeries, it's a mix of almost 13% of our high-end surgeries, which are getting converted to Femto Cataract. So that's something which is adding a huge value to us and helping us do our overall surgical value growth also. So it's not just the volumes, but it's a total value, which you should look at.

That's interesting. So if I have to, let's say, put that as a specialized surgical procedures, may be Femto Cataract, Lenticular or Retinal surgery, if I have to club all this, if not individual segment-wise, but a specialized surgical procedure by revenue, how much that would be contributing to our surgical revenues if that number is handy?

So just if I have to give you high cataract numbers, that for the last quarter, we are at closer to 28%. And out of that, Femto Cataract I mentioned is 1,800 surgeries, which is 13% of the overall high-end cataract numbers.

28%, sorry, I...

28% is the high-end cataract percentage of the overall cataract numbers.

As per value or by volume?

Total cataract -- no, in terms of overall value, which is the total income coming in from overall CapEx, about 28% comes in from high-end cataract surgery is what Rahul is saying.

Got it. Got it. And sir, secondly, this formation of this Ethiopia subsidiary, what are the sort of measures over there, if you could throw some light over there?

On what, Tushar?

Ethiopia.

On Ethiopia, we are looking -- so Ethiopia is a high potential market, which we are looking at entering right now. We are in the process of looking at assets where we can actually start our facility. It's got a steady patient base, and they have a lot of respect for our Indian doctors, which is why we believe that's a significantly potential market for us.

I'll just add here. Ethiopia, one is there is no cash going from India. It is completely funded by the orbit entity. Second is, operationally, it is an easier center -- easier location for us to handle because it's neighboring states to Kenya, and we have a very strong team in place in Kenya. Plus, Ethiopia is one of the growing markets in entire Africa. So the potential opportunity that exists today with the lack of services, with the number of people coming into Addis Ababa is lucrative according to us right now.

So whether it goes or don't go from India, but at a consol level, if I have to give -- if you can share some ballpark number in terms of any investment amount may be in terms of building the facility or any inorganic opportunities we are thinking out there? Any ballpark number which you have earmarked for this?

Tushar, opportunity is purely going to be organic only, but once we have a few more details, we will come back to you in terms of what is the estimated CapEx spend which we are looking at. Right now, what we are doing is we are doing a feasibility study of the market. And what we have seen right now, we like that the overall size of the eye care market in Ethiopia is quite large. Second, it has a very high cash revenue mix, which is something which we like as well. And there's a lot of respect for Indian doctors. We believe there is a good potential for us to scale up the business. But we have not reached a stage where we have estimated the CapEx cost and projection. Next time, when we come back, we will come back to you with more details on CapEx spend estimated and what are the projects going to look like.

We take the next question from the line of [ Prateek ] from Bandhan AMC.

Sir, just one small question. Could you just let me know the greenfield losses for the quarter and for the first 9 months, please?

Sorry, greenfield losses? Yes, we'll just give it to you, just one second. Yes. So overall, at a regional level, our total losses are about INR 28 crores, INR 28.57 crores of total greenfield losses, which includes branches launched over the last 3 years, what we consider as an emerging centers. So over these 3 years, everything put together cumulative is about INR 28.57 crores. And this is something which we have been saying that despite some of the early greenfield losses which we face, we've still been able to maintain our margins, which is a healthy sign in terms of how we are ramping up many of our centers. Most of these losses will come from the centers which have opened in the last 9 months. FY '24 and FY '25 vintage centers have already started to become profitable. So losses coming from those centers is much lesser.

I'll just add here one point. This is including all the centers that are loss-making. When you go into cohort analysis, FY '25 centers at a branch level, cohort is not loss-making. The entire cohort is positive. It is not loss-making at all. What Dr. Adil just mentioned was all the cumulative centers of only loss-making centers.

Okay. And the corresponding revenue to this -- and this in the first 9 months, right? That's the correct understanding, right?

This is including what Dr. Adil has mentioned is including FY '25 and FY '26, all loss-making centers.

No, no, I'm saying this for the first 9 months, right, the INR 28 crores which you just...

This is for the first 9 months, correct.

Also includes the operating losses as well.

Yes. And the revenue corresponding to this on the Slide [ 13 ], is it INR 300 crores? I just did 20% or 15%, 13%. Is it a fair understanding?

You're talking about the revenue coming in from those particular centers is basically FY '24, FY '25 and FY '26. We've already shared the breakup in...

No, no. My question was, sir, let's say, the INR 28 crores loss, on a revenue base, right? That revenue base is INR 300 crores for the first 9 months, just to get a like-for-like comparison?

No, no, no. That's how. That is not how you look at. When you're looking at the revenue base, it includes your profitable centers as well. Only for the loss-making centers...

Understood. Could we just call out that revenue? How much is the revenue from these INR 28 crores of loss? What's the corresponding revenue of those?

We don't have that exact number right now with that -- Prateek, on a separate call, we can share some of those numbers.

We take the next question from the line of Kartick Bane from Bajaj Life Insurance.

I would like to know more about the same-store growth, which is up 13%. How you split there between price growth and the patient volumes?

Sure. So I can give you an overall perspective on what the breakup looks like. We have -- on the overall 13%, we have a volume growth, which is half of it, close to 6.5% and the value growth, which is 6.5%. In this 6.5% of value growth, we have both price hike and premiumization. Large part of the value growth is coming from premiumization, which I already spoke about, almost close to 5% has come in from premiumization. Even in volume growth, I would break it down into 2 parts. One is the basic OPD growth, which is closer to the 4%, 4.5% range, which we get on a year-on-year basis. And the remaining is what we do with the same walk-ins, which comes in, where we are able to get better conversion rate on the same patients as the facilities start maturing and the confidence starts and the trust starts growing higher, our conversion also on the same walk-in numbers starts increasing higher. So that's another 2%. So that's broadly how the 13% breakup comes in.

Okay. And second question is on the robotic surgery. So firstly, are these robots on the lease and operate basis? Or have we already bought the robots? And secondly, 60 surgeries that you mentioned per month per robot, is this the highest capacity? Or is there a scope for further improvement in the capacity utilization for robots?

So the 60 robotic cataract surgeries, the number we mentioned was what we have started to do from our Delhi facility. It's not overall. Some of our centers -- some of our high-volume centers do a number which is much higher than that as well. So overall, we have done about 4,400 robotic surgeries across the group, which signifies approximately 83% growth over last year. All the machines which we have are all fully owned by the company, and they are not leased out, just to clarify. Most of our hubs across major cities now have a robotic cataract surgery machine.

We take the next question from the line of Dishant Jain from Quasar Capital.

One question on the subsidiary financials. There has been a sequential growth on the employee side. So any reason particularly for that?

So we are talking about the subsidiary AEHL. So that's a regular part of the business where as we continue to expand our business, so we are continuing to add more and more employees to our network. We've also added a few primary centers. And as we continue to strengthen our business, we continue to keep adding employees, nothing out of the ordinary in AEHL.

So it's business as usual business as usual.

Business as usual.

And sir, is it possible to give the operating cash flow numbers for 9 months for holding as well as subsidiary?

Yashwanth?

See, operating cash flow, it's close to about 80%, which has been our average for the last 3 years.

Okay. Okay. And sir, 2 more questions on the majorly update. One on the facility in the subsidiary company with the large facility, what is the update on that? And another one will be on the merger update. What is the progress over there?

So quickly on the merger update, right now, we have filed for a no objection certificate from the stock exchanges. We expect receiving this no objection certificate from the stock exchanges very shortly. Following this, we will proceed to the National Company Law Tribunal, NCLT, to convene meetings for our shareholders and creditors. We expect these meetings to occur around 2 to 3 months post the receivement of the NOC from the stock exchanges.

Okay. And on the facility that is going to come in subsidiary company, when are we going to start it? Hello?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have lost the line of the management. Please stay connected while I reconnect the management. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management line reconnected. Sir, please proceed.

Yes. So I think we expect the entire merger process to be completed by Q3, Q4 of '26, '27?

Q3, Q4 of '27. And sir, lastly, on the update on the facility in the subsidiary company that is going to come?

So the estimate on that facility is we are expecting to complete everything and get all our licenses and approvals by Q2 of FY '27. So hopefully, by sometime end of Q2, we should be able to get it.

End of Q2.

We take the next question from the line of [ Amar Ahil from Rayden Capital ].

Sorry, but I missed if you mentioned this. What I wanted to ask is how many new facilities are you going to add going forward?

So the guidance which we have given is we're looking at adding anywhere between 55 to 60 facilities over the next couple of years. Every year, we'll be looking at adding at least 55 to 60 facilities every year.

Okay. 55 to 60 facilities every year, right?

Yes. Roughly, the math is we are looking at increasing our network size to about 20% every year.

Okay, 20% every year. And it gets a break-even in 15 to 18 months, right?

No. So there's a clarification there. I'll just ask Yashwanth to clarify what we mean by break-even.

See, in our core markets, here, if we consider our core markets of Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Telangana, Karnataka and now Maharashtra has also become our core market. The facilities break-even at a store level within 6 to 7 months. What I was earlier speaking about is in the newer regions where it is about close to 15 to 18 months. So on a blended basis, all our facilities will break-even within the 12-month kind of a mark.

Okay. And what sort of CapEx [ indiscernible ]

Aman, I do apologize to interrupt you, but your audio is not clear. Could you please repeat your question?

Is it clear now?

Yes, please go ahead. Yes.

Yes. What sort of CapEx it might require for the 50 to 60 additions every year?

For the surgical facility business is a secondary facility, the CapEx ranges between INR 5.5 crores to INR 6 crores. For tertiary facility, generally, the CapEx ranges between close to INR 11 crores to INR 12 crores. And for a primary facility, the CapEx is close to about INR 35 lakhs.

Okay. Got it. And what would be the ratio of primary, secondary and tertiary in terms of additions?

See, the way you want to think of it is these are not decisions that we plan 1 year before. We understand the market and then see what the market requires. So if you see a usual split will be about 75% will be surgical, 25% will be primary centers. But between -- in the surgical, the secondary and the tertiary is not something we decide that much prior. I hope that's clear.

I'm so sorry, I just couldn't hear the last line you mentioned. Can you please repeat?

The last line was between the surgical facilities, we don't plan which one should be a tertiary or a secondary so much prior to the opening. We understand the market. At the time of understanding the market, we understand what is required for the market and then we decide whether it has to be a tertiary or a secondary facility. For example, for Delhi, it's a tertiary facility. But for Kolhapur, it's not a tertiary facility, right? But those decisions are made during market understanding.

Ladies and gentlemen, we take that as the last question and conclude the question-and-answer session. On behalf of Dr. Agarwal's Health Care Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.