Ladies and Gentlemen. G ood day and welcome to the Q1 FY2026 Earnings Conference Call of Metropolis Healthcare Limited hosted by JM Financial. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on date of this call. These statements do not guarantee the future performance of the company and it may involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. With this, I now hand the conference over to Mr. Amey Chalke from JM Financial. Thank you and over to you, sir.
Yes, thank you Shruti. Good morning everyone. I am Amey Chalke on behalf of JM Financial, welcome you all to the 1Q FY2026 Earnings Conference Call of Metropolis Healthcare. From Metropolis, we have with us today Ms. Ameera Shah, Chairman and Whole Time Director, Mr. Surendran , Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Sameer Patel , Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Avadhut Joshi, Chief Business Development Officer.
Now I will hand over the call l ine to you Ma'am, over to you for your opening remarks.
Thank you, Amey. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for the Q1 FY2026 earnings call. Now, we've uploaded our investor presentation and the related documents on the stock exchanges and on the company's website, and I hope everyone's had the opportunity to go through the same. India's healthcare landscape is gradually shifting, shaped by a range of developments in how care is delivered, accessed, and monitored. We are keeping an eye on a few broad global trends that stand out: AI-led diagnostics, decentralized point of care testing, and the growing relevance of GLP-1 therapies and metabolic health. Artificial intelligence is recently being embedded into diagnostic workflows, particularly in radiology, enabling faster, more accurate reporting and personalized recommendations. In the pathology space, globally or in India, it has started entering the workspace and customer service, back-e nd processes and a few technical tests.
However, it is far from being used en masse at this time. At Metropolis , we are applying AI across multiple area, from clinical reporting in a few tests and customer chatbots to test recommendation engines and AI assisted testing in prostate cancer, allergy testing, and Karyotyping. No one in India at this time is using AI ina very scaled or differentiated way that we believe is going to be severely disruptive to the existing industry. The second trend when we review, which is of POC diagnostics, we are seeing it help improve access, especially in semi-urban and rural areas where setting up a lab may not make economic sense. Point of Care is not cheaper or more accurate than the current standardized platforms, and therefore usage is more for urgent reporting in metros and access to diagnostics in smaller rural markets.
If a scaled use case for using Point of Care diagnostics is found, Metropolis would certainly consider using the channel to access new customers or markets. On the GLP-1 front, the receptor agonist market in India is currently valued at $110 million in 2024 and projected to grow to $500 million by 2030. This shift is likely to drive higher demand for regular monitoring of glucose, lipids, liver, kidney, and cardiac parameters. This marks a shift from episodic testing to longitudinal health tracking, with consumers increasingly investing in proactive wellness. Together, these trends point to a gradual move towards more personalized and proactive diagnostics. Also, certain metabolic channels and other tests may increase as the use of GLP adoption increases.
We are very happy to announce that our strategy of strong organic growth plus good quality acquisitions has resulted in 23% growth in revenues for MHL in Q 1 FY2026. Despite Q1 typically being a soft quarter in the West and S outh region, Metropolis recorded a strong 13.2% organic growth in revenues driven by volume and improved realization supported by our strong brand equity and expertise in the specialty diagnostic segment. With North region now contributing 17% to our overall revenue, we will continue to spend considerable time and effort in growing the space in the North region. While quality, scale, and brand equity continue to be strong pillars, we are now doubling down on our scientific depth and innovation
to further distinguish ourselves from competition, particularly in a market where pricing gaps are narrowing, W e are in the process of building a Center of Excellence in Oncology diagnostics, with the centralized expertise in genomics, histopathology, cytogenetic, molecular oncology, and physical testing. The Center of Excellence will serve as a hub for clinical collaboration, research, and education, positioning Metropolis as a leader in onco diagnostics and enabling differentiated high trust offerings for oncologists and hospitals. The acquisition of Core and putting together skills and expertise Metropolis already had in oncology along with the new relationships acquired via Core, we will seek a platform for Metropolis. Not only be the largest oncology testing player in the country, but keep innovating and investing for growth for the next several years to come.
Additionally, we have been actively upgrading our labs and associated IT systems while complementing and implementing several lab automation initiatives to boost efficiency and productivity. As we keep increasing our test menu not only in our global reference lab but also in our regional reference lab, it allows us to deliver faster results and reduce turnaround times for our specialty test for all markets. But fast is not enough. The result has to be precise and accurate according to each doctor's individual experience. To achieve this, we not only have curated our own quality protocols, but we have standardized them across all our labs and continue to uphold and show our quality results in every test for every patient and every doctor. Our vigorous internal quality control process operates in parallel to NABL accreditation and is rolled out across every lab under Metropolis.
This doesn't mean just testing the sample on a single machine and transferring the data to the patient, but it includes multi-Tier validation of test results, using various testing platforms to cross-check results, curation of reference ranges for the Indian patients, daily quality checks, and the use of global quality controls and standards ensuring consistency, accuracy, and reliability across our entire lab network. This system provides a significant edge over not just unorganized fields where such uniformity is often lacking, but also sometimes organized fields where our expertise and knowledge of pathology over 40 years proves to be a differentiator. Just to update you on the integration of our recently acquired target, last quarter we completed three acquisitions as part of our inorganic growth strategy . Integration of these assets is progressing smoothly with no significant challenges encountered.
L ed by a dedicated steering committee, t he integration process is already yielding synergies, particularly in lab consolidation, procurement efficiencies, and reduction of overlapping overheads. Our immediate focus is to fully integrate these acquisitions into the Metropolis ecosystem, prioritizing operational efficiency and margin improvement in the first year. Once integration is complete and synergies are captured, we will shift our focus to accelerating revenue growth through cross-selling opportunities and expanding the reach of Core Diagnostics across Metropolis Pan India network in year two. W hile Metropolis has organically posted a 24.7% EBITDA margin and Scientific Pathology and DAPIC in Dehradun are of good margin profile, Core Diagnostics will be turned around this year and this year it will drive the consolidated EBITDA market.
If we look at Core, Core has shown a positive year-on-year revenue growth with a notable improvement in profitability, achieving a low single-digit EBITDA margin compared to the break-even levels in Q4 FY2025 before we acquired it. Our immediate goal is to integrate the team into our culture and processes while unlocking efficiency gains through integration synergies. Our goal for year one is to reach a high single digit EBITDA margin primarily through cost synergies and we should see the progress over the coming quarters. PAT for Q1 is negative, largely due to high depreciation and high cost interest for Core, and it has a INR 12 crores loan in the books, which has been now refinanced in July at a much better rate and hence Q2 PAT for Core should be much better.
Scientific Pathology, Agra and DAPIC, Dehradun, both entities have delivered revenue growth in line with the company average and margins are slightly above the company average for both. These brands are well established in their respective local markets and our strategy moving forward is to expand into adjacent regions by increasing the number of collection centers and offering the broader Metropolis test menu, helping us capture a larger share of the market. It's worth noting that DAPIC, D ehradun has been consolidated only from 23rd May 2025, and Scientific Pathology Agra only from 16th June 2025, and hence only proportionate revenue and margins have been consolidated. J ust yesterday, we have announced our acquisition of Ambika Diagnostics in Kolhapur, founded and run by Dr. Patil, and considered the most credible lab in Kolhapur.
We have been in a management contract with Ambika for the past few years, where Metropolis runs the business with employees on our payroll and all processes and technology under the Metropolis guidelines. This lab on lease model has done very well the last two years and has grown 60% since we started managing it. We believe this growth will continue to be strong in the future and we thought it made sense to acquire this business and merge it with Metropolis Kolhapur lab that runs independently in the city. While the revenue of the business was INR 8 crores in FY2025 with INR 1.8 croress EBITDA, when we look at the valuation of INR 17 croress for 100% of this business, while it looks like a 9.4x of FY2025 EBITDA, in reality its EBITDA will be INR 3.4 croress once we acquire it.
Because it will include the synergies between the labs and fully show the profit on its own, it would actually effectively be a 5x multiple of EBITDA. Together the lab when we merge them would create the largest lab in Kolhapur and the region, in the whole region and it would be a good hub to grow in the whole district. Dr. Patil will continue to work with us for over 10 years and we believe this acquisition to be highly accretive f rom day one. T he acquisition would be done from internal accruals and closed within 30 days from signing which was yesterday. We have consistently emphasized that strategic intent to diversify into adjacent healthcare services which can enhance customer engagement. We have been piloting several initiatives including basic radiology like ECG and X-ray and non-blood vital checkups and on-call doctor consultations.
We are pleased to share that our basic radiology pilot has gained encouraging traction. We have 20 locations offering full radiology services which include X-ray, sonography, and ECG. 36 locations offering X-ray services, and 240 locations offering ECG services across the Metropolis network. The integrated approach, which combines blood diagnostics, non-blood vital assessments, and basic radiology, enables us to offer a more comprehensive and holistic preventive health solution under TruHealth brand. By expanding these services within the Metropolis ecosystem, we are not only enhancing customer value but we are strengthening our ability to deliver end-to-end health screening packages and this is helping us improve our RGP as well. Early indicators from these pilots are promising and we believe this direction has the potential to serve as an additional growth lever, further deepening customer engagement and expanding our service footprint. Lastly, on the competitive front, the landscape remains largely unchanged.
The unorganized sector continues to lose market share to organized players and the growth is largely through marginal volume increase in the unorganized size. This shift in market share was initially concentrated amongst a few organized players pre-COVID and post-COVID. The chain is now distributed across a slightly larger number of organized chains. Meanwhile, in the last 12- 18 months, health tech players are facing heat on lower growth and trying to demonstrate that their unit economics work. In response, they have been consistently raising prices and are now transitioning from discount net volume growth to a value-based growth approach, bringing their revenue growth similar to organized flow. We continue to remain excited for Metropolis' revenue and profit growth for this year.
While we will spend most of our e nergy on growing the business organically and integrating the deals already announced, w e will continue to evaluate other acquisitions that make sense for Metropolis for the future, always from the goal of buying businesses which fit our culture, long term vision, and can create financial value for shareholders . I will now ask Surendran to brief you on the progress on key operational and financial metrics. Thanks, Surendran. Over to you.
Thank you Ameera and good morning everyone. We are pleased to report that both patient volumes and the revenue growth have returned to normalized level in line with our guidance. After a temporary dip observed in Q4 last year, largely due to seasonal and regional factors, the business has rebounded as expected in the Q1 . The recovery has been broad based supported by several strategic growth levers. Let me just deep dive into some of them. TruHealth Preventive Portfolio o r TruHealth Range of Preventive Health Checkups continues to be key contributed to patient footfall and test volume growth. With increasing awareness around preventive diagnostic, lifestyle management and chronic disease monitoring and our ability to upsell, TruHealth is witnessing healthier adoption across urban and rural markets.
Our integrative approach of blood diagnostics, non blood vital check and doctor consultation is helping us and we have now reached 18% contribution via TruHealth Portfolio. Specialty: growth in high end specialty tests, particularly in oncology and genomics have added both volume and value to our overall portfolio. These tests not only command higher RPP but also reinforced Metropolis positioning as a science-led differentiated diagnostic provider. On the network expansion side, continued geographic expansion especially in underserved Tier 3 and very urban markets has been strong tailwind. Through a focused hub-and- spoke model, we have added new collection centers enhancing access and brand presence across newer micro markets. The Tier 3 cities have shown strong growth in patient volumes driven by increasing brand preference, widening test menu availability and improved local infrastructure.
Starting with this quarter, we have reclassified our B2C and B2B portfolios to align with prevailing industry standards t o make it easier for investors and analysts to compare. W e have dropped the institutional bucket completely and divided the business under only B2B and B2C. Under the wide classification, B2C now includes all revenue from company owned center, franchisee centers and rural collection centers. B2B encompasses service to laboratories, hospitals, government institutions, corporates and pharma companies. As per the revised definition of B2C, our organic business B2C revenue contribution stood at 59% as compared to 57.8% in Q1 last year. For MHL Group, B2C now contributes 56% to overall revenues including the acquisitions. The decrease in B2C contribution on group level is largely on account of Core Diagnostics , which has majority of revenue contribution from B2B channel.
Going forward w ith cross selling of the Specialty Test across Metropolis network and leveraging the existing channels, we believe that contribution of B2C shares from Core should increase. Our organic B2C business continues to show robust and consistent growth, with revenues increasing by 15% on a year- on -year basis. Now this has gone by 9% growth in patient volume reflecting strong consumer engagement and reach 6% growth from improved test mix on pricing, highlighting our ability to offer differentiated and value added diagnostic services. In Maharashtra, which is our largest B2C market, revenues also grew by 16% year-on-year with Mumbai outperforming the state average, fueled by deeper brand equity, broader test offerings, and strong medical community trust. Our strategy push into Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns is further strengthening our B2C footprint, helping us reach new patients through an expanding network of collection centers and franchisee partners.
A key enabler of B2C growth has been the increased adoption and engagement of our mobile and digital platforms including the Metropolis app. Key announcements that are driving stickiness and repeat usage include personalized health journeys, tailored test suggestions, and curated wellness content based on patient experience preferences. Real time tracking of orders, seamless report access, and proactive event reminders significantly improving customer satisfaction. E nd to end digital integration of test booking, home sample collections, payments, and customer support resulting in smooth and hassle-free experience. This omnichannel approach is not only enhancing patient convenience but also improving operational efficiency by reducing dependency on manual channels and offering service turnaround times. A t the local level, o ur micro marketing strategy is helping us drive targeted awareness and patient acquisition in high potential clusters. This includes hyper-local campaigns based on regional health trends and demographic impact,
clinician engagement program to build strong relationship with the medical community. Expansion of Metlink Partner Program which has made the relationship between franchisee and Metropolis even stronger. These initiatives have led to a visible increase in B2C contribution, stronger brand recall, and improved benefits in both metro and non-metro markets. We remain confident that this momentum will continue to build as we scale our reach, optimize our best offerings, and deepen customer relationships. Our B2B revenue for the quarter grew by 10% and now stands at 41% as per the revised classification of the B2B definition for the organic business. Patient volume in the B2B segment grew by 4% while RPP rose 6%, primarily driven by high value outsourcing from hospitals. This reflects our continued focus on specialized and advanced diagnostic offerings that command better pricing. We increased our partnerships with the pharmaceutical companies in line with strategies emphasis on Specialty diagnostics.
Upgrade to our partner portals has improved end-to-end visibility and service experience for B2B clients. Enhanced tracking, transparent reporting, and faster resolution mechanisms have significantly improved partner satisfaction and operational efficiency across labs, hospitals, and corporate accounts. This quarter, we also considered our engagement with Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinic in line with our long-term strategy to move away from low margin government or institutional contracts. Instead, we are focusing on science-led B2C and B2B segments which offer higher margins and greater long-term sustainability. Turning to the productivity and margin performance. T he EBITDA margins for Q1 stood at 24.7%, higher than Q4 last year. Our attempt will be to strengthen the margin every quarter for this year on a year-on-year basis. The reported group EBITDA has marginally impacted by the consolidation of Core Diagnostics, which is currently operating at low single digit margins.
While it's an improvement from breakeven levels of Q4 last year before we acquired the business, we remain hopeful of bringing Core 's margin profile to high single digit by the end of the financial year as integration progresses and synergies begin to reflect in the financials. To strengthen EBITDA margins this year and in the next few quarters, we have rolled out multiple productivity initiatives aimed at unlocking efficiencies over the last 18- 24 months, w e have invested heavily in automation and digital workflows to streamline operations, reduce manual effort, and enhance service run around times. Many of these programs are now live and will start to add to our productivity efforts. Also, our lab infrastructure expansion, which is in execution for the last four years, successfully concluded last quarter.
With this foundation in place, our focus has now shifted to rapidly scaling our collection center network to feed this labs, thereby driving higher throughput and utilization, which will translate into better margins over time. In Q1, we have added 80 new collection centers, and we are on track to add approximately 400+ collection centers across various regions this year with a strong focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. This expansion is being supported by our recently strengthened lab infrastructure in these geographies. As of now, we are serving customers in about 750 towns across India, and we aim to expand our footprint to 1,000 towns soon, further deepening access and enhancing our presence in high-growth, underpenetrated markets. In summary, we have entered financial year 2026 with renewed momentum, clearly shifting gears compared to the previous two quarters.
The integration of recent acquisitions is well on track, and we expect this to unlock meaningful cost synergies over the remainder of the year. This includes operational consolidation, procurement efficiencies, and overhead optimization, all of which will contribute positively to our margin profile. On the growth trend, we are seeing healthy revenue performance supported by strong execution across Core growth drivers. The TruHealth Preventive P ortfolio, speciality diagnostics, and Tier 3 market expansion continue to be the leading contributors. These segments not only add scale but also bring higher value and margin accelerative business, a ligning with our strategy of moving towards quality-led growth. W e have also deepened our focus in science and quality, an important pillar of differentiation for Metropolis . This includes enhancement in quality processes, test menu expansion, step forward building center of excellence, and continuous upskilling through scientific platforms.
These actions position us as a trusted diagnostic partner, especially in the specialty and high end testing space. In parallel, we have activated several productivity enablers across the organization, from digital process automation to optimize resource deployment. These efforts are already yielding improvements in operational efficiency and are expected to support sustained margin expansion going forward. Overall, with strong execution across integration science, digital and operational trends, we are entering the year with solid traction and clear line of tag to our goals. We remain committed to delivering profitable sustainable growth with reinforcing Metropolis position at trusted science led-d iagnostic leader. With this, I'll hand over the call to Sameer who will take us through the financial highlights. Thank you and over to you.
Thank you Suren. Good morning, everyone. Let me now share some of the key financial performance for Q1 FY2026. We have bifurcated our reporting on two aspects, one MHL Group and second MHL Organic. MHL Group includes recent three acquisitions of Core Diagnostics, DAPIC Dehradun and Scientific Pathology Agra, and MHL Organic excludes these three acquisitions. Also, change in definition of B2C and B2B segment to streamline the same with the industry standards. B2C now includes all owned franchisee and rural centers and B2B now includes B2B Lab, hospitals, government, corporate and clinical trials. Moving on to the financial performance and operational performance, first I would like to highlight operational performance of MHL on organic basis. Revenue and EBITDA grew by 13.2% and 11.9% respectively and PAT grew by 21.2% on year-on-year basis. Patient volume stood at 3.2 million, a growth of 7%.
Our test volume growth stood at 8% on year-on-year basis with increased contribution from TruHealth segment . We consider one profile size one test which is different from peers. A s on like basis a s peers this number would be a significantly higher. Our B2C revenue stood at INR 209 million, a growth of 15% on year-on-year basis and with B2B revenue stood at 10% . TruHealth and Specialty segments grew by 22% and 16% respectively.
Also revised classification of B2C segment, B2C contributes 59% of total revenue compared to 57.8% in Q1 FY2025. Revenue for Specialty, B2C segment grew by 18% and B2C TruHealth segment grew by 19% on year-on-year basis. B2B revenue stood at 14% of total revenue and B2B's Specialty grew by 15%. TruHealth segments of Q1 FY2026 grew by 22% and TruHealth now contributes 18% of overall revenue. Specialty segment grew by 16% on year-on-year they discovered through Q1 FY2026. EBITDA for MHL on organic basis stood at INR 87.5 crores, a growth of 11.9% on year-on-year basis. EBITDA margin for MHL organic stood at 24.7%, an increase of 14 basis points on a sequential basis and we are optimistic of seeing an uptrend every quarter. PAT for MHL on organic basis stood at INR 46 crores as compared to INR 38.1 crores in Q1 FY2025, a growth of 21.2%.
PAT margin for MHL organic stood at 13% compared to 12.2% in Q1 FY2025, an increase of 80 basis points. Now let me share the key performance indicators for MHL at a group level. Revenue grew by 23.2% on year-on-year basis from MHL Group including the revenue of recently acquired entities. PAT volume stood at INR 3.4 million and test volume stood at INR 7.1 million, a growth of 11% and 12% respectively. B2C business revenue grew by 19% for Q1 FY2026 and B2B revenue grew by 29% on year-on-year basis. O n MHL basis, r evenue for the North now contributes 17% of overall revenue largely because of integration of Core Diagnostics which has its major presence and revenue coming from North region. Revenue growth from Tier 1 towns stood at 27% and Tier 3 towns stood at 17% on a year-on-year basis.
Revenue for Tier 3 towns now contributes 17% of total revenue for Q1 FY2026. Contribution from B2C revenue stood at 56% in Q1 FY2026. The decrease in B2C compared to organic business of 59% is largely on account of consolidation of Core Diagnostics which has majority of revenue contribution coming from B2B. EBITDA margin for MHL Group stood at 23.1%. The decrease was largely attributed to lower margin profile of Core Diagnostics. However, we are happy to report that Core has turned positive with a lower single digit margin profile in Q1 FY2026. PAT for MHL Group stood at INR 45.2 croress. This PAT is at 11.7%. That's all for my side. With this I open the floor for question and answer.
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Anshul Agarwal from Emkay. Please go ahead.
Good morning. I think I am audible.
Yeah, you can go ahead.
Yes, you're audible.
My first question is on integrated offerings. While our pilot projects have indicated positive traction in basic radiology, what could be o ur plan going forward? Would we sort of think about getting into advanced radiology or continue to expand basic radiology across our network? Secondly, would this be on an a sset-like basis or would we own these equipments?
I think on the basic radiology we continue to spread it across our centers. These equipments are not very expensive. These are smaller equipments. A lot of them are on asset light basis. We are not procuring all of them. It's a combination, I would say. W e are evaluating whether higher end radiology is something worth getting into or not. We don't have a clear answer at this point of time. I think over the next couple of quarters, I think we'll have a clearer direction. In the meantime, we'll continue to roll out the basic radiology. W here we are finding this is helping, if not helping obviously very significantly on the independent revenue front. What we are finding is that customer frequency to our centers increases with this. When they do add on some of the tests, either radiology or the non blood vitals, it actually helps them do a larger screening program than the screening program with us. It's more about the completion of the services at the center which also helps in NPS with the customer.
Second question is on GLP medication. From what we understand here, would patients or would customers start bec oming healthier by using this m edication? I s that a risk for the healthcare delivery provider? How should we look at it? I understand this is a very recent s tage. But why do you view this in positive light versus what the product is destined to deliver?
See, the product is only talking about weight loss . The product is not necessarily saying better health. These are not necessarily the same thing. They can be for somebody who's got obesity as an issue. Obviously, automatically it brings about diabetes and other things. You also have to remember anytime you're giving a dosage of a drug, there also can be side effects. There are known side effects of these drugs, and therefore doctors who are prescribing them will also have to continue to monitor those patients to watch out for whether those side effects are taking place in the patient's body or not. Our sense is that while it has a potential to manage maybe diabetes better because of obesity coming down, but things like cardiovascular risk and other risks that could be caused because of these GLP-1 medication, will continue to have to be monitored. It's not just the heart, but a lso watching the liver, the kidney and t o see if there's any impact, we have to remember that these drugs are not that old in the world and people have not had a chance to really see what is the impact of these for the next 10, 15 years. I sense that people will continue to monitor their health because one of the things they are doing to stick GLP-1 is to get healthier. That automatically means also that you want to do a more regular wellness screening to make sure that all parts of your body are working fine.
That's clear. Just one more if I can squeeze in. In terms of our margin profile, I'm talking about the organic part of the b usiness excluding the acquisition. When do we start seeing the benefits o f the hub expansion that we took over the last two to three years t o sort of creep in in our margins? Should we not expect a margin expansion? 100 bps-1 50 bps on our organic business?
Anshul , we have mentioned in the past also that the drag on the margin from the newly acquired labs actually happens for two years a ctually. F irst year it normally gets into a negative margin and year two it gets into a positive 10%-12% margin, and year three normally gets into the company levels of margin. We have anyway halted all the accelerated expansions last year, at the end of Q4 . This year, for the labs that we expanded last year and the year prior to that, there will be some a little bit of drag on that, and the next year we will have a little bit of drag on because of the labs we expanded the previous year.
So you'll start seeing benefits on EBITDA margins coming this year to start with, and next year, by the end of next year, we'll get the full benefit of the lab expansion which has been halted. I think it's a couple of years' time where you fully get that 1% plus benefit which otherwise we used to talk about.
Compared to last year, obviously in FY2025, FY2026, we will certainly see a margin bump of EBITDA expansion. We've already started seeing it obviously from Q2 itself.
Great. Those were my questions. All the very best.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and one on their touchpoint telephone. Our next question is from the line of Tausif Shaikh from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. M a'am, well, you mentioned in the initial comment that Core Diagnostics has turned positive. Can you throw some light on the patient volume growth and the revenue growth with Core Diagnostics as we have seen on a YoY basis?
At this point we are not p roviding the separate information for each of these. Like we mentioned broadly in year one, what we traditionally see when you acquire any organization, whether it's unorganized or organized, is that sometimes the practices in it may not be exactly the same as Metropolis. Therefore, sometimes you have to cut certain customer accounts, you have to let certain things go because you want to clean things up. And therefore, the first year the goal will be margin expansion and cleaning up the practices and integrating. From year two, the focus will really be on the revenue acceleration. That's the direction that we are going in. It is obviously i t's just the first quarter of the acquisition and some of these acquisitions have only had 15 days in the quarter. We felt it's just too early to start giving indications on the separate growth and the separate margins for everything.
The only reason we indicated for Core is just to show the trajectory on what we committed when we did the acquisition that we will see a quarter- to- quarter improvement in the profit profile and w e just wanted to indicate that that's on track.
That's helpful, ma'am. Second question again on Core Diagnostics. A t the time of the acquisition, you had mentioned we had a field force of 100 people. Have we done any kind of restructuring to the field force?
No, we have not disturbed the field force at this point of time. They continue to operate the way they used to operate because they are all specialist sales people, and we have not done any restructuring at this stage .
Thanks. That's helpful.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Sumit Gupta from Tencent. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Am I audible?
Yes, sir, you're audible.
Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. First is like what's the strategy for expanding into this Kolhapur area? Like will it be acting as a bigger.
Sumit sir, sorry to interrupt. Y our voice got low and your audio break. Can you please repeat your question?
Hello, is it fine now?
Yes, now it's fine.
Yeah, just want to understand on the basically rationale for expanding into Kolhapur.
Like Ameera mentioned, this lab, you know, which is Ambika Diagnostics, used to be on lease-owned lab with us in the past for the last two years and where it has been run by our people. Now, we have decided to acquire this lab and we also have a Metropolis separate lab in that area. With this acquisition, we need to have only one of the two labs in that place because it will be fully owned by us. This will also help us to expand into the entire Kolhapur region. We already have presence in most part of the Kolhapur region, but with the addition of Ambika Diagnostics, we'll have a little more stronger footprint and good coverage across that area.
Okay, so going forward, can you expect more acquisitions of this particular size or can we expect a size to be bigger ?
It will continue to, a t this point we don't have anything else that we are expecting to announce at least in the next quarter or so. As we keep evaluating the funnel, we are obviously looking at different sizes. We are looking at small ones, but which are very credible, like we did DAPIC, like we did Agra, like we've done Ambika, and we are looking at larger ones as well. The final goal is not about small or big. The final goal is about whether it really fits the culture, whether it fits the way of thinking that Metropolis has as a strategy, and most importantly, does it create value for, you know, our shareholders. We are only buying, doing deals where we feel that we are able to create that kind of value and not having to pay a crazy price when it becomes difficult to create value.
Understood. Okay. Just a bookkeeping question, what was EBITDA for this Ambika in FY2025?
Standalone it was INR 1.8 croress, o n its own if you look at FY2025, but in the model of lab on lease we were also sharing certain revenue share with Ambika Diagnostics, et cetera, so when it's in our books, it will actually give INR 3.4 crores and not INR 1.8 crores.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Kunal Thanvi from Banyan Tree Advisory Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks for the opportunity and good morning. My first question was on the competition. In our annual report we've talked about some easing out of competition on pricing, also from the organized and unorganized players. If you look at some of the data points, like say gross margin for most all the listed players and the kind of acquisitions we have been doing in the last 18 months or so, there are some signs from an outside investor we can see there's some ease out in terms of the competitive intent and the valuations also seem to have kind of normalized. If you can throw some more light on how the organized and unorganized in terms of competition has behaved and what are the factors that have led to competition land of everything in the last 18 months, it would be really helpful.
See, if you look at the period o f 2020- 2023, it was, as we all know, a black swan event. In any black swan event , you have lots of people who look at opportunities that are hot and try jump in . That's what really happened in healthcare and especially in diagnostics because there was so much COVID testing that needed to be done. If you saw a bunch of new corporate players who sort of said, oh, this is an industry which is going to grow for a long time, let's jump in, and you also obviously have tech guys coming in. The reality of our industry, however, is that these black swan events which create large revenues in a short period is not a norm. The norm of the industry is you really have to work on the ground, building sample by sample, building it through brand trust and credibility and expertise. I think as some of the players, some new and some old, are recognizing the challenges in actually building the business and the kind of mode there is, you are seeing in some cases people saying, okay, maybe this is not necessarily what we are cut out for. You're seeing funding slowing down.
In some cases, you're seeing a funding winter because companies have not been able to show and proved unit economics that work profitability for them, and therefore funding is not coming for them. I think there are different reasons, but I think largely it all comes back to commercial. The understanding is that, look, the organic growth in the industry is about 8%- 10%, and anything you want to do above that or even to reach there is going to take a lot of hard work and a lot of patience and long-term vision. Generally, we are seeing that there is a little bit more rationality on the pricing, and we are seeing the kind of intensity we saw between 2020 and 2023 has certainly come down. The players have not gone anywhere.
They are still in the market, they continue to compete, but we are not seeing irrationality, which is a good thing for the industry.
Sure. When we look at the gross margin for the listed players, we have seen either stability of going up , is it to do with only the pricing, or there's some respite on the raw material side also, because if at all these listed players are gaining market share?
Can you just repeat the question?
When you look at this, this is.
You are breaking when you are speaking.
Sorry for that. My question was when you looked at the gross margin, right, there seems to have stable or stable down or they are improving for most of the listed players. This is entirely due to pricing responsibility coming up or because the, you know, the large guys have started seeing market for gains. There is second order impact on the raw material procurement cost.
Actually, it's a combination of multiple things. You know, one, of course, the price stability is definitely coming and becoming more predictable by really helping us. Then a lot of operational efficiencies are coming in because of automation, digitization, et cetera. Right. I mean, as the scale goes up, the profitability gets better. This is a combination of all these three things put together. You will see it's playing out for everyone as you go forward.
Sure. The last question that I had was on, w hen we are moving from, you know, top towns to Tier 2, Tier 3 towns, how does one look at the unit economics in those smaller towns, because t he scale at which we would be operating in, you know, top eight cities would be very different w hen you're going to those smaller towns, can one expect similar kind of unit economics in terms of, you know, throughput margins, et cetera, and in those smaller towns, how do you think about it?
Yeah. See, now our expansion into Tier 3 and beyond will only be with respect to centers, not with respect to labs. The lab part of the expansion is already over, r ight? These expansions of the centers are also happening in Tier 3 and beyond only through the franchisee route. From a Metropolis point of view, largely the investments are in terms of clinician engagement, logistics, et cetera, which has been properly stitched. So your unit economics will largely be at par with the rest of the Tier 3 towns. We don't really find any further stress on that going forward when we expand. Actually, we are going deeper into this. We already reached 750 towns and we already have currently a mechanism to engage with the clinicians and the logistic arrangement. Now, your question is only about going deeper and getting more volume.
The unit economics only get better from these towns.
Okay, sure. Maybe one thing was on the basic radiology, the basic radiology that we talked about. A re margins again similar there as well compared to what we have in our Core business.
See, it's too early days for us. You know, we just in the last year or so, we have expanded into, like Ameera said, 20 centers, now where we are both X-ray an d ultra sound , and about 35 centers we would not have X-ray alone , and 250 centers with ECG. Very early days to look at the margin profile of these business separately. We are sure that it will only be adding to the overall profitability because it's happening from the same centers. We are not set up extra center for the same center, same people. There is no additional cost other than the processing costs in these cases. The margin should only be at par or better.
Okay, thank you so much all the very best.
Thank you. A reminder to all participants and anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the Touchstone telephone. Our next question is from the line of Ispreet Kaur from Relaxed Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, I just wanted to check, is it possible to share the average revenue per test in B2C and B2B?
I don't think we have it off the top of our head, but I. think there would be a difference of approximately 20% or more. We'll come back to you maybe with some specifics. Yes, please. We have written down t he name in detail.
Is it also possible to give a breakup of volume in patient and test in B2C and B2B?
Already provided that. If you want me to call it out separately, I'll just do that. Just give me a minute. On the B2C, I mean, let me talk about the organic business. The volume growth was 9% and the realization growth was 6%, adding up to a total of 16% revenue growth. On B2B, the volume growth is 4% and realization is 6% .
Is it possible to mention the numbers in terms of volume, not the growth. Absolute number.
Absolute number on B2C and B2B. We'll get back to you on that. Yeah, we can get back to you.
M aybe as a practice, if it is possible to share it as a disclosure in the presentation. Just a request from our end.
All right.
Just wanted to understand on the B2C part, considering the current test and the setup and the geographical expansion that we have, what is the kind of level of share that we could see from the B2C part in the next three to five years?
Your first target, you know, now at the group level to moving to the 60% plus levels, you know, we are at a group level maybe at 56% after all the declassification and keeping the group together, we're at 56% of our target is to reach up to, you know, 60% as you go.
Right. Similarly, on the radiology side, which we started, do we see it as a significant revenue contribution in the next three to five years?
The basic radiology I don't think will be a significant contribution from a resident perspective. If of course we choose to go into high end radiology that would be different. Just on the question you asked around the volume in germ tests for B2C and B2B, for B2C I think it's INR 37.9 million for Q1 FY2026 and B2B is INR 3.28 million.
INR 32.8 for B2B.
Sure.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Raman KV from Sequent Investment. Please go ahead.
Hello, thank you for allowing me to. Ask questions and congrats on your excellent result. I just want to understand how much of the total revenue is from B2G. Can you give a ballpark figure?
B2G, I must say it is negligible. I must say it's negligible and less than a percentage if I can say so. In the last few calls I've already mentioned that we are gradually withdrawing from the non-profitable, you know, government businesses and other contracts are also finding it difficult to get our monies. We are withdrawing. The last one was Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics which we've withdrawn from 30th of June. Today the government business is very, very negligible, a ctually.
How much was it three years back if you can quantify?
Three years back, we had a big NACO which is a big contract which is about 7% revenue at that point of time. Overall we had about 10% government revenue with tax in. Todat it is less that a p ercentage. Y ou know, gradually and strategically we have withdrawn from these businesses.
Okay, sir. My second question is the main growth for any diagnostic is with respect to the volumes. Can you give a guidance with respect to the volumes of, you know, this Metropolis and u pon that, how much growth are you expecting for the acquired entity. T he recently acquired Ambika Diagnostics? Can we expect it to grow 60% b ecause you have mentioned earlier that it grew 60% this year, in FY 20 25. Can we expect it to repeat the same or not?
Let me answer all the questions. One after the other, the volume growth for the MHL organic business, you know, guidance were always 7%- 8%, you know, you already reached the 7% level. We expect to continue at 7% level and keep bettering it going forward. At a group level we have done 10%- 11% and we expect that's the level that we will do for this year. Coming to Ambika, and the 50% growth, we said we grew it to 60% over a period of two years. Initially when we took over, there are many things that we could do and could get immediate gains and flat levels of growth you could see. Going forward I think we definitely see this business growing better than maybe the MHL business in the first year or so .
And sir, with respect to Core Diagnostics, so now it's like EBITDA positive c an you expect it to move shift towards higher, the higher single digit margin by the end of this year? Can we expect the revenue led by the volume growth to be above the industry average, about like 30% or 40%?
I think the EBITDA margins definitely are, y ou know, are estimated that it will become a high single digit as we go forward and maybe, you know, the year one expected a very high single digit number up, r ight? Revenue growth, like Ameera mentioned, we have to do some of our cleanup in the early days, and this year our focus is largely to get the synergies and margins corrected and getting the business as much cleaner as good, r ight? And t hen focus on the revenue growth from the year after that.
Okay, thank you sir.
Yeah.
Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Girish Bakhru from Orbi Med. Please go ahead.
Yeah, see I have few questions on Core as well. Just wanted to understand this o ncology, super specialty, and companion diagnostics. How big is that market? Do we have that number?
We don't have the number right now off the top of our head, but we can certainly get back to you on this.
Ameera, how many players, l et's say we know that of course in organized diagnostics there are, I mean, largely three, four handful players. Is that the same when we talk about companion diagnostics?
Not really. I mean I think the lab chains or the organized players who are doing better on the oncology side, may not be exactly the same as the top three incumbents overall.
Okay. When you're talking about, of course, taking margins in Core gradually higher, I just wanted to understand o ne driver you have been talking about is, of course, putting more of the mix using Metropolis test in Core and, of course, growing the onco speciality overall in Metropolis using Core. Which of these two drivers will essentially drive that margin cost to the company level in Core?
See, the company level margin at Core margin to company level will be driven more by cost synergies. Core was a good business on its own. But the chances of Core making money on its own profitably was low because it was subscale and t he kind of corporate cost that were involved and the kind of lab costs that were involved would never have allowed you to make money on it's own. In the first quarter, as you see, we have already integrated the overlapping labs in locations where Metropolis and Core both have labs. I think we have done almost five such overlaps, so we 've merged them .
So like that, as you make Core leaner and you are using shared infrastructure, we really believe that over the next three, four years we'll be able to take Core to the company margin and obviously then the revenue acceleration will also have to kick in b y then, by year two, where y ou're able to really take this to more clients, and you're able to get more tests from your existing distribution and increase the productivity for customers. That's how we believe that Core will become a profitable business.
Understood. Core increase in margin and TruHealth, of course, doing very well. Can you give some directional color or sense on where this RPT or RPP numbers will go trend wise?
For Core or for Metropolis?
For Metropolis overall. As an overall entity, I'm basically discussing this.
Yeah, see, I think if you look at the history, I think the last few years we've been seeing a 3%- 5% increase in RPP every year. That's coming from a combination of moving up the value chain and therefore selling more specialized tests to patients who need them. That's a journey that we believe will continue for Metropolis. So, usually, you know, pricing, as you know, has got some part of it, but it's not a huge part of it. The bigger part of it is unique product that plays an important role for it.
Yeah, can you like see it doubling over the next five years? Is that possible?
I don't think we have seen a doubling over the last five years. I think that would be requiring a 15%, 20% kind of an increase every year, so unlikely. I do think that the kind of trends that we've seen in the past five years, I think 10%, 15% as we go into the future .
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraints, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments. Over to you.
Thank you and thanks everyone for joining us. As we stated, you know, we seem very excited about the year of 2024, Metropolis. It's a big deal for us that we believe we're going to take a big leap forward, not only in breaking our own record for organic growth that we've seen but also significantly improving on the margin, really integrating the three acquisitions and making them really part of Metropolis and setting the stage for them to accelerate in the years to come. You know, this year, as we've seen in Q1, we've had a 23% growth and obviously we expect Q2 to be a much better quarter than Q1. We know Q2 and Q4 are the best quarters in the year for our business in our part of the world.
We certainly look forward to doing all the things behind the scenes that leads to the right kind of outcomes that we have discussed with all of you as shareholders. While we continue to really build Metropolis into even further technology enabled organization, we feel our theme is complete. We are set with a good leadership team to really take on all the challenges of this year. We've seen a lot of hunger and a lot of aggression on the ground for Metropolis. We look forward to sharing with you guys more updates in the next quarter and have a good weekend as well.
Thank you. On behalf of JM Financial Institutional Securities Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.