Rainbow Children’s Medicare retains 18–20% revenue growth guidance for FY26

Rainbow Children’s Medicare is sticking to its revenue growth guidance of 18–20% for FY26, with the company expecting demand to pick up meaningfully in the coming quarters.“We remain very optimistic about our growth. We’re just entering the busy season, which will likely result in revenue growth in the late teens to up to 20%,” said Dr. Ramesh Kancharla, Chairman and Managing Director of the company, in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

Even though the company posted a strong Q1 FY26 EBITDA margin of 29.4%, it does not plan to revise its full-year guidance upwards. Dr. Kancharla said margins may come under pressure as three new hospitals, with about 250 beds in total, come onstream this year. He added that the company expects pre-Ind AS margins to be in the 24–25% range and post-Ind AS margins to be around 29–30% for FY26.

Average revenue per patient is expected to grow 6% year-on-year in FY26, in line with the company’s earlier outlook. “We remain optimistic about achieving that 6% growth,” Kancharla said, despite a flattish Q1 in terms of topline.He also pointed out that the rise in average revenue per occupied bed (ARPOB) has been driven by a stronger case mix, including more paediatric surgical, specialty, and quaternary care work like cardiac transplants and neurosurgeries. “What has done well is the paediatric surgical work, paediatric specialty work, and also paediatric quaternary care… that has pushed up ARPOB due to big-ticket items and shorter lengths of stay.”

Surgical revenues have seen strong momentum, growing by at least 15% both in terms of volume and value. Meanwhile, overall hospital occupancy has dipped to around 40%, largely due to the seasonal slowdown in outpatient and paediatric intensive care segments.

Watch accompanying video for entire conversation.