India's Dr. LalPath Labs posts higher Q4 profit rises on healthy testing demand

Bengaluru: Dr Lal PathLabs, India's biggest diagnostics firm by revenue, posted a bigger profit for the fourth straight quarter on Thursday, led by the addition of more labs and increased demand for medical tests.

The company's consolidated net profit jumped 49 per cent year-on-year to 845 million rupees ($10.1 million) in the fourth quarter.

Its shares climbed as much as 7.8 per cent after the results before trimming some gains to trade up about 6 per cent. Rival Metropolis Healthcare was up about 2 per cent and Thyrocare Technologies gained about 1 per cent.

Analysts expect Indian diagnostic firms to benefit from geographic expansions and price hikes.

"We're expanding our reach in core markets by strengthening our presence in Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns," Dr Lal PathLabs Chief Executive Officer-designate Shankha Banerjee said.

The number of samples tested grew 8.5 per cent during the quarter, and was up roughly 10 per cent for the fiscal year.

The company, which operates more than 280 labs in India, said total revenue climbed by 11 per cent to 5.45 billion rupees.

Thyrocare is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter results next week. ($1 = 83.4872 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon and Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)