Fortis Hospital Overview
Fortis hospital is one of the leading hospital chains in India. As per the company website it operates its healthcare delivery services in India, Dubai, Mauritius and Sri Lanka with 45 healthcare facilities (including projects under development), approximately 10,000 potential beds and 314 diagnostic centres.
You may have seen the hospital in your city. It is present in most of the major cities of India. So by brand you may have seen it. There are mainly three major hospital chains in India. Apollo Group, Fortis Group and Narayana Hriduyalaya Group are the major hospital chains.
Medical tourism is said to be next big thing in India. It will have same impact as IT and Pharma had on Indian Economy. Having said that lets see how the company has performed on Stock exchanges so far. That would give idea of performance and how well it is doing with respect to competitors.
Fortis Hospital Stock Performance
Below graph shows the price performance of Fortis Hospital. I have taken the price performance from IPO date. So if you have put money in IPO then you can easily see how well company has performed for initial investors.
Fortis healthcare was listed around 100 mark in year 2007. The company got hit with 2008 crisis and share prices plunged to levels of 50. This was the lowest price for the company.
It then moved towards 180 odd marks and has not decisively crossed 200 mark since then. It has moved past 200 mark only in year 2017 for brief period. The stock price is range bound and moved between 100 and 200 mark all these 11 odd years.
People have not made money in this company but they have not lost as well. But the return is not spectacular as you can get your money doubled using safe investments then why to invest in Equities. There is no point doubling your money investing in risky instrument.
So the price performance has not been impressive.The medical tourism statement or hype created is not yet reflected in company performance.
Fortis Hospital My Opinion
The ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has invested in Fortis hospitals. I have not seen any other hospital stock in portfolio of top investors in India. So it means majority of investors are not bullish on hospital sector.
Rakesh Jhunjhunwala may have invested with Medical Tourism in sight and growth of quality health care needs in India.But others are not buying this logic.
I am not convinced with Hospital sector as well. There are too many players in this field and may be consolidation will happen after some years. If that scenario comes then you may see few big players taking control of majority hospitals in India. The group that prevails will win be profitable.
Conclusion
As mentioned above there are 3 major players in this field. You should compare all players of this sector and track the ones which interest you. You can then add the players in your stock watch list.
Fortis being invested by Rakesh Jhunjhunwala will have an edge over others but it is better to study them together.