Wonderla Holidays expects Chennai facility to be commissioned in FY19

Wonderla Holidays, which operates three amusement parks in Kochi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, is expecting its fourth facility in the country, in Chennai, to be commissioned in fiscal year 2019. The company recently said that it is in the process of acquiring land, which will be of around Rs 65 crore, in a couple of months and it will be starting construction by September, subject to approvals.

In an analyst meet recently, company's Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Nandakumar Thelakkatt said: "We are already in the final lap of land closing and once the approval is in place our previous experience says that we will be able to commission that in 18 months to 20 months' time. If with that everything works well, we look for FY19 somewhere we will be commissioning Chennai."

The company said in May, this year, that it is in the process of acquiring land in a couple of months' time with around Rs 60-65 crore into it, and if the approvals are ready the company will be starting the construction by September with civil construction first. It is expected to invest around Rs 25 crore into the civil construction for the current year, he added. The company is expecting its total capex during the year to be around Rs 125 crore.

Wonderla is looking at starting one park in every three years.

The company has started its third amusement park in Hyderabad in April, this year. The park is spread over an area of about 50 acres and currently about 28 acres of land has been utilised. It is expecting a footfall of seven lakh people to the facility during the entire fiscal year and net realistation of Rs 720 per ticket. This would mean that around Rs 50 crore would be coming to the revenue of the company from Hyederabad, this fiscal year.

In 2012, Wonderla Bangalore added a resort inside the amusement park - making it the first amusement park in India to have a resort built right inside it.