There are some businesses, where only a black swan event leads to sharp growth in profit. Otherwise the underlying nature is such that they don't have any sudden spike in their profits. But there is constant growth. The constant growth could be because of many reasons. It may be because of the fact that penetration of that good or service is very low and over a period of time as it improves, both top and bottom line keep moving upward. It could be because of the movement of business from the unorganized sector to the organized sector. Or due the fact that the “need” of that good or service is such that spending on it cannot be postponed. In the case of diagnostic business, it is all the three, or rather four. The fact is that in 2020, a black swan took place which led to the sudden spike in FY 2021 numbers, but then back to normal growth curve. Now for three years, there has been a painful process of partial normalization of valuation and end of price wars. Has the time come for extreme long term investors to bring them back on watchlist ?
