Fortis to widen healthcare footprint with bed expansion, specialty focus; scouts more acquisitions

Fortis Healthcare is looking to deepen its presence across north and south India through acquisitions, brownfield expansion and hospital management partnerships, as the company focuses on building regional healthcare clusters and expanding high-end specialty care.

The hospital chain said it would continue to evaluate inorganic growth opportunities across its focus geographies even as it expands capacity in existing markets.

“We continue to progress on our brownfield expansion plans and actively evaluate further inorganic growth opportunities within our focus geographic clusters,” Managing Director and CEO Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi said while announcing the company’s FY26 results.

The company has already laid the groundwork for that strategy during FY26 through a series of acquisitions, lease agreements and operating partnerships aimed at strengthening its network in cities where it already has a presence.

Fortis acquired the 125-bed People Tree Hospital in Bengaluru, giving it room to expand capacity to more than 300 beds over time. It also acquired the 228-bed Shrimann Hospital in Jalandhar, taking its Punjab network closer to 1,000 beds.

In NCR, the company signed a long-term lease agreement for a nearly 200-bed hospital in Greater Noida, with expansion potential to around 250 beds. It also entered into an operations and management agreement for a proposed 550-bed greenfield hospital in Lucknow and signed an agreement with Gleneagles to manage around 700 beds across five hospitals.

Industry executives say large hospital chains are increasingly focusing on cluster-led expansion instead of entering scattered markets, allowing them to improve doctor utilisation, referral flows and specialty integration across nearby facilities.

Fortis is also widening its play beyond conventional hospital services. During the year, the company launched Adayu, a dedicated mental healthcare facility in Gurugram, signalling a push into adjacent care segments amid rising demand for organised mental health services.

The company is simultaneously expanding its focus on high-end specialties, which are emerging as key growth drivers for private hospital operators. Fortis said its top six specialties — cardiac sciences, orthopaedics, neurology, gastroenterology, oncology and renal sciences — contributed around 62% of hospital revenues in FY26. Renal sciences and orthopaedics grew by 22% and 21%, respectively.

The company also reported a 66% increase in robotic surgery volumes and a 19% rise in radiation therapy procedures during the year, reflecting growing demand for complex procedures.

To support future growth, Fortis added five soft tissue surgical robots, four cath labs, two MRI machines and one PET-CT system during FY26.

International patient business is also becoming an important part of the company’s expansion strategy. Revenue from overseas patients rose by 18.5% to Rs 639 crore in FY26 and contributed 7.8% to overall hospital revenue.

Alongside hospitals, Fortis is also scaling its diagnostics network through Agilus Diagnostics to strengthen preventive care, patient acquisition and referral pipelines across markets. Agilus expanded its customer touchpoints to 4,445 during the year, while preventive healthcare revenue grew by 21% and contributed 13% to diagnostics revenue.

Fortis reported consolidated revenue of Rs 9,128 crore for FY26, up 17.3%, while operating EBITDA rose 31.3% to Rs 2,085 crore.

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