Dr Agarwal Health Care Ltd – “Eyeing an IPO, but Investors Need Binoculars for This Valuation”
1. At a Glance
Dr Agarwal’s Health Care isn’t just an eye hospital chain—it’s a full-blown empire with 165 facilities across India and another 15 in Africa. Cataract surgeries are their bread and butter, but they also push opticals, contact lenses, and pharma items like your neighbourhood optician on steroids. The only problem? At a P/E of 141, the stock is priced like it cures blindness and brings 6G internet.
2. Introduction
Indian healthcare is usually about Apollo Hospitals, Fortis, and the occasional WhatsApp forward about free AIIMS treatment. But in the specialized world of eye care, Dr Agarwal’s sits on the throne. With a 25% market share, it’s not just the biggest—it’s bigger than the second-largest chain combined.
Founded in 2010, the chain scaled faster than chai shops in a Tier-II railway station. Today, it’s got 737 doctors, 1.15 million patients in just six months, and over 1.4 lakh surgeries in H1 FY25. That’s not healthcare—it’s an assembly line for eyeballs.
The model is clever: lease facilities instead of buying, cluster them for cost efficiency, and cross-sell opticals and pharma. It’s like Domino’s—cheap setup, mass rollout, and every order comes with extra sides (spectacles instead of garlic bread).
But IPO investors need to ask—are they paying for eye care, or for a valuation that makes Apollo and Max look like discount stores?
Secondary Facilities: Surgical centres for cataracts, the Big Bazaar of eye surgeries.
Tertiary Facilities: Super-specialty hospitals doing retinal and corneal procedures. These also double up as training and research hubs.
Revenue comes from:
Surgeries (64%) – The blockbuster. Cataracts alone = 104,591 in six months.
Opticals & Contact Lenses (13%) – Every surgery customer probably exits with new shades.
Pharma & Eye Drops (8%) – Because no Indian hospital ever lets you leave without a bag of meds.
Efficiency hack: most facilities are leased, so capex burden stays low. It’s essentially the McDonald’s model applied to retinas.
Question: Would you rather bet on a “surgery factory” or a “hospital hotel” like Apollo?
4. Financials Overview
Metric
Latest Qtr (Jun’25)
YoY Qtr (Jun’24)
Prev Qtr (Mar’25)
YoY %
QoQ %
Revenue
487 Cr
403 Cr
460 Cr
20.8%
5.9%
EBITDA
128 Cr
104 Cr
131 Cr
23.1%
-2.3%
PAT
30 Cr
12 Cr
43 Cr
151%
-30.2%
EPS (₹)
0.95
0.39
1.03
143.6%
-7.8%
Commentary: Revenue growth looks healthy, but profits are thinner than hospital idlis. Margins hover at 26–28%, but PAT is getting chewed up by depreciation and interest.
5. Valuation – Fair Value Range Only
P/E Method: EPS ~₹3 (TTM). Industry average P/E ~63. Fair P/E range 60–80 → Fair Value ₹180–₹240.
EV/EBITDA Method: EBITDA ~₹481 Cr (FY25). EV/EBITDA 20–25 range → EV ₹9,620–₹12,025 Cr → Per Share ₹305–₹380.
