Indian Hotels gets comfortable

Indian Hotels’s Q3FY23 is a reflection of all the ‘revenge travel’ that happened. Posting its best quarter ever, the owner of brands like Taj, Vivanta and SeleQtions, posted a consolidated PAT of Rs.383 crore v/s Rs.76 crore (YoY) and Rs.122 crore in Q2FY23; this is more than the entire profit made for FY22, the Covid year. Looks like it has finally got out of the pandemic and back to pre-pandemic days.

Revenue from operations rose from Rs.1111 crore to Rs.1686 crore, up 52% (YoY).

Its EBITDA came in at Rs.655 crore, up 90% (YoY), which is its best ever.  Margins were healthy at 37.6%, up by a whopping 719 bps.

The company’s CMD is extremely bullish about the future, saying, “the G20, India hosting the cricket World Cup this year will give us good business. 2023 will be a very strong year for us.”

It has about 22,000 rooms in operations through some 250 hotels. Of these, 95 are under the Taj brand, contributing 70% to topline; another 85 hotels are in its budget brand Ginger and the rest is divided between the Vivanta and SeleQtions.

The market has given it a big thumbs up; from its close of Rs.300.55, it opened at Rs.317.50 and rose to an intraday high at Rs.321 and its 52-week high is at Rs.348.70.