Asiri Hospitals top in first-ever ranking of listed entities

Asiri Hospitals have topped the league in the first-ever ranking of listed entities in Sri Lanka in an exercise for the year ended 31 March 2021, done by K Seeds Investments.

All six listed hospital companies were assessed on Net Profit Margin, EBIT Margin, Return on Equity, Return on Assets Debt to Equity Ratio, Current Ratio, Revenue Growth and Net Profit Growth.

On that basis, Asiri Surgical Hospital has come on top, followed by Asiri Hospital Holdings, Ceylon Hospitals (Durdans), Nawaloka Hospitals, Lanka Hospitals, and Singhe Hospitals.

K Seeds Investments, which also ranks listed finance companies, said its hospital rankings gain valuable insights by analysing the summarised financial information it has presented, hence facilitating prudent decision-making for investment purposes or other requirements.

It said the ranking evaluates the financial performance of the listed hospitals to provide useful and timely information to demonstrate their financial strength. The hospitals are ranked based on a number of key performance indicators, which are given an equal weighting.

K Seeds Investments said Sri Lanka’s healthcare industry is dominated by the public sector due to the Government’s policy of providing free universal healthcare. A major portion of the market is being catered to by the public hospitals. Around 25% of the market is open for private hospitals to compete in. However, the increasing income levels of the country, the growing ageing population, and the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NDCs) are likely to increase demand in the long run. 

K Seeds Investments said during the past two years, the healthcare industry had the overwhelming task of protecting the staff and providing patient care at the same time. The pandemic accelerated the sector’s digital transformation of healthcare services through online disease screening, consultation, medical need delivery, and web medical-based assistance.

"Laboratory revenue of the hospitals shows a steep growth with PCR testing and Intermediary Care Centres joining as revenue drivers. However, overheads have also increased driving margins down as extra costs were incurred for safety measures such as PPE kits, sanitisation of the hospital, and other safety precautions, combined with the low volumes of patients during the lockdown period," K Seeds Investments added.