Business
Most hospitals expect double-digit revenue growth in FY2022
The hospital sector witnessed a spike in Covid-19 occupancies during Q1 FY2022 in line with the active cases in India that touched an all-time high in May 2021, peaking at more than 4x the first wave peak.
The overall occupancy levels were supported by longer average length of stay for Covid patients even as localised lockdowns resulted in a sequential decline in non-Covid occupancies to a certain extent.
The blended occupancy of both Covid and non-Covid patients for ICRA sample set stood higher at 64.2 per cent in Q1 FY2022 (against 36.9 per cent in Q1 FY2021 and 58.8 per cent in Q4 FY2021), an ICRA report said.
Most multi-speciality hospitals derived 25-30 per cent of their Q1 FY2022 footfalls and revenues from Covid-19 treatments and vaccination drives. While the Y-o-Y revenue growth of 129 per cent in Q1 FY2022 for ICRA sample set was optically high aided by the low base, the Q-o-Q revenue growth was also healthy at 15 per cent.
However, higher share of revenues from Covid treatments resulted in a 4.2 per cent Q-o-Q contraction in the average revenue per occupied bed (ARPOB) in Q1 FY2022, even as complex nature of infections and higher proportion of patients requiring critical care treatment and oxygen support aided Y-o-Y growth of 8.7 per cent in ARPOB.
Operating leverage benefits in addition to incremental revenues and margins from vaccination drives and Covid tests resulted in an improvement in OPM for ICRA sample set to 19.3 per cent in Q1 FY2022 (against -9.3 per cent in Q1 FY2021 and 18.4 per cent in Q4 FY2021), the highest witnessed by the sample set in the last few years. This was despite absence of revenues from international patients.
Says Mythri Macherla, Assistant Vice President and Sector Head, ICRA, “While both in-patient (IPD) and out-patient (OPD) footfalls declined sequentially in Q1 FY2022 on account of Covid 2.0, footfalls were far higher than Q1 FY2021, wherein hospital operations were adversely impacted on account of the nationwide lockdown. Most hospitals have witnessed sequentially higher footfalls in July and August 2021 compared to Q1 FY2022 levels.”
“To assess the on-ground sentiments and understand the outlook for FY2022, ICRA conducted a survey of its rated hospital entities. Key findings suggest that with strong performance in Q1 FY2022 and expected benefits from pent-up demand for electives, respondents expect occupancies in FY2022 to be better than FY2020 levels and ARPOB to remain range-bound in FY2022 despite higher contribution from Covid. More than 2/3rd of the survey respondents expect double-digit growth in revenues in FY2022, and OPM to revive and be higher than FY2020 levels on the back of healthy improvement in occupancy levels.”
The net debt for ICRA sample set increased by Rs 350 crore as on June 30, 2021, compared to March 31, 2021 on account of advance payments for vaccine procurement and higher pharmacy stocking of Covid medicines.
In terms of capex, many companies in the sector have gone slow on greenfield expansion in the last few years as the focus was on improving returns on existing facilities.
Players are now looking at adding bed capacity within the existing infrastructure, and some of the larger players are actively scouting for inorganic growth opportunities. However, owing to the healthy cash generation and strong liquidity position, the interest coverage ratio is projected to improve.
The Government of India and the Reserve Bank of India have taken multiple measures to support the sector, including an on-tap liquidity window, dedicated ECLGS credit lines, etc. which is likely to support liquidity of industry players.
Business
Tesla shareholders to vote on Musk board seat and $158 billion pay award on Dec 3

Tesla has scheduled its annual shareholder meeting for December 3, where investors will vote on the re-election of Chief Executive Elon Musk and other directors, along with an advisory resolution on executive compensation and the appointment of the company’s auditor.
According to a proxy filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla has nominated Musk, Chair Robyn Denholm and director JB Straubel for new three-year terms on the board.
Shareholders will also be asked to approve, on a non-binding basis, executive compensation for 2025 and ratify PricewaterhouseCoopers as Tesla’s independent auditor for the fiscal year ending December 31.
Moreover, the proxy statement disclosed executive compensation attributed to Musk for 2025 of about $158.36 billion, consisting entirely of stock-based awards.
The figure reflects the accounting value assigned to performance-linked equity grants and does not represent cash compensation received by the billionaire entrepreneur.
Tesla said the awards remain contingent on the achievement of specified market capitalisation and operational targets.
The company previously reported in May that Musk’s realised compensation for 2025 was zero with none of the 12 tranches tied to the incentive program having been earned.
The equity package comprises roughly 423.7 million restricted shares that vest only after predetermined milestones are met.
In addition, any earned shares are generally subject to a five-year holding requirement, with limited exceptions.
The annual meeting will be held at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas facility in Austin at 3 pm. However, Central Time and will also be accessible online.
Additionally, the filing highlighted several board-level links between Tesla and SpaceX.
However, the proxy statement did not reference any potential merger involving Tesla and SpaceX.
Apart from that, Elon Musk-backed SpaceX is scheduled to announce its third-quarter results on Tuesday after its shares fell nearly 35 per cent from their post-listing high.
This will be the company’s second quarterly earnings report since going public in June, following a volatile stretch for the stock.
The stock has dropped around 35 per cent from the record high it hit soon after its debut.
Business
Oversight Board criticises Meta over election-related moderation errors

The independent Oversight Board on Tuesday criticised Meta, saying the social media firm must improve the transparency and consistency of its election-related enforcement after a series of moderation failures involving political accounts in the United States and Brazil.
In a statement, the Board said it remained concerned by what it described as recurring shortcomings in Meta’s election integrity efforts and warned that mistakes in content moderation risk either suppressing legitimate political speech or undermining public confidence in electoral processes.
It pointed to the removal of political activist accounts linked to the ‘No Kings’ movement in the United States and restrictions placed on accounts associated with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during election periods as examples of enforcement actions that fuelled concerns about electoral interference.
According to the Board, the erroneous action against the No Kings Instagram account should have been detected by Meta’s safeguards designed to prevent moderation mistakes.
Meanwhile, it also questioned why the accounts were not included in Meta’s Cross-Check program which provides additional human review for high-profile civic and political entities before actions are taken that could affect participation in major public events.
The Board said Meta’s enforcement of fraud-related policies against ad accounts linked to Lula during Brazil’s presidential election campaign similarly represented a failure that should have been escalated to specialist reviewers.
The comments revisit concerns raised by the board following Brazil’s 2022 presidential election, when it called on Meta to establish measurable benchmarks for assessing the effectiveness of its election integrity programs and to publish relevant performance data.
While Meta regularly discloses broad statistics such as the number of advertisements archived or accounts removed, the Board said the company has yet to provide public metrics that adequately measure the effectiveness of its enforcement systems or identify significant shortcomings.
Moreover, the Board also warned that the wrongful removal of political content ahead of elections could have a chilling effect on political participation and potentially undermine electoral integrity.
“Automated enforcement tools must take language, nuance, and political context into account to better protect political speech that does not incite violence,” according to Oversight Board.
Meta had pledged in 2025 to reduce moderation errors while allowing greater freedom of expression around elections and political debate.
The Board said recent incidents suggest further improvements are needed for the company to meet that commitment.
Business
Indian stock markets closed on account of Dussehra

Indian stock markets will remain closed on Tuesday on account of Dussehra with trading suspended across major segments on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Trading in equities, equity derivatives, securities lending and borrowing (SLB), currency derivatives and interest rate derivatives will remain closed for the day on both exchanges, according to them.
Notably, normal trading on NSE and BSE will resume on Wednesday.
However, the commodity derivatives segment will follow a different schedule. Trading will remain suspended during morning session from 9 am to 5 pm before resuming in evening. The session will continue till 11:30 pm or 11:55 pm depending on contract.
Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) will not remain closed for entire day. Exchange will suspend trading during morning session from 9 am to 5 pm and reopen for evening session from 5 pm.
Investors will be able to trade commodities such as gold, silver, crude oil and base metals during evening session.
Meanwhile, National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) will remain closed for both sessions on account of Dussehra.
Following Dussehra holiday, three regular trading holidays remain on NSE and BSE calendars for rest of 2026 — November 10, Tuesday, Diwali-Balipratipada; November 24, Tuesday, Prakash Gurpurb Sri Guru Nanak Dev; and December 25, Friday, Christmas.
In addition, exchanges have also scheduled a special Muhurat Trading session for November 8, 2026 on occasion of Diwali Laxmi Pujan. Timings for special session will be announced separately.
Notably, in the last session equity benchmarks closed in negative territory amid selling pressure in the banking and information technology (IT) sector stocks.
Sensex decreased over 850 points or 1 per cent to settle at 73,852.90 on Monday. Similarly, Nifty closed 257.20 points or 1.11 per cent lower at 22,888.95.
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