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 Indian hospital chain operator Aster DM Healthcare reported a rise in first-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by higher occupancy during the flu season.

The company's quarterly consolidated profit from continuing operations surged 81.3% to 810 million rupees ($9.7 million) from a year ago. This excludes a gain of 51.48 billion rupees in the first quarter from the sale of its Gulf business.

Revenue from operations climbed 19% to 10.02 billion rupees, the company said.

KEY CONTEXT

Aster DM, like rival Apollo Hospitals, largely makes its money from operations in southern India. Analysts expect hospital chains in the region to benefit from the acute flu season that, apart from coinciding with the June quarter, is known to bring diseases such as dengue and malaria.

Other rivals of the company, including Fortis and Max Healthcare, are expected to have a subdued quarter as North India - their larger revenue avenue - experiences the acute season September onwards.

A rise in the number of surgical cases also boosted Aster DM's revenue, said analysts.

PEER COMPARISON

Estimates (next Analysts' sentiment

12 months)

RIC PE EV/EBI Profit growth (%) Mean # of Stock to Div

TDA rating* analysts price yield

target** (%)

Aster DM 40.74 23.29 65.66 Buy 6 0.85 0.58

Healthcare

Apollo Hospitals 58.21 29.53 47.48 Buy 24 0.98 0.24

Enterprise

Max Healthcare 55.38 37.35 33.82 Buy 17 1.10 0.11

Institute

Fortis Healthcare 43.71 23.44 32.47 Buy 13 0.94 0.20

* Mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** Ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

APRIL TO JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 83.6400 Indian rupees