 "IHCL looks to build portfolio of 300hotels, scale up new business")
The Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) is eyeing to build a portfolio of 300 hotels and strengthen and scale up new businesses, including Qmin, 7Rivers, ama Stays & Trails, under its Ahvaan 2025.
We have signed over 100 hotels and opened over 40 hotels in the past five years, becoming the fastest growing hospitality company in India. Ahvaan 2025 will further accelerate our profitable growth by scaling our diversified brand portfolio across traditional and new businesses," IHCL Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Puneet Chhatwal told reporters on Monday.
IHCL aims to build a portfolio of 300 hotels, clocking 33 per cent EBITDA margin, of which 35 per cent EBITDA share contribution is expected to come from new businesses and management fees by 2025-26, he said.
The hospitality company is also focused to strengthen the balance sheet with focus on free cash flows and be a zero net debt company, he said.
Chhatwal said Ginger will be an important growth vehicle and will scale to 125 hotels, 'ama Stays & Trails', a branded offering in the homestay market, will be a portfolio of 500 and Qmin, the hospitality group's culinary and home delivery platform will expand to 25 plus cities," he added.
He said the company will continue to have a strong focus on technology and iconic brand Taj and Paathya an industry leading ESG+ (Environmental, Social and Governance) framework will be the key enablers of IHCL, he said.
IHCL also aims at re-structuring its portfolio and achieving a 50:50 mix between its owned/leased and managed hotels.
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At present, the ratio is 53:47 mix between its owned/leased and managed hotels, he added that going forward the focus will be more on the management contract model.
"It will look to stimulate growth by unlocking capital through strategic partnerships, monetisation and simplification. Having signed the highest number of new hotels in India over two consecutive years 2020 and 2021, IHCL has a strong pipeline of 60 hotels. IHCL is present in 100 destinations across India. Taj, the iconic luxury brand is slated to grow to 100 hotels across the globe, while Vivanta and SeleQtions will scale to a portfolio of 75 hotels," he added.
IHCL has a portfolio of 236 hotels including 60 under development globally across 4 continents, 11 countries and in over 100 locations.
The company is also looking at monetizing its non-core assets, Chhatwal said.
"We are looking at monetising non-core assets like land in Gurugram, The Gateway Hotel on Beach Road in Visakhapatnam among others," he said.
When asked about the status of the Sea Rock in Mumbai, Chhatwal said IHCL wants to develop an iconic property on this side of the city and for this it had talks with the relevant ministries, secretaries and the commissioners.
"Things got further delayed due to the third wave of the Covid-19. We will have something on this in 3-4 months," he added.