Taj Hotels parent's stock skids even as revenge tourism is driving business

Indian Hotels, the company behind Taj Hotels among other hospitality labels such as Ginger and Vivanta, saw its share price coming under pressure on Friday after a heady growth that has seen its share price almost double in the last one year.

The company came up with strong numbers for the second quarter ended September 30.

Revenue of Rs 1,258 crore in the quarter was up 67% year on year with EBITDA more than tripling to Rs 319 crore. The firm, the largest hospitality company in the country, reported profit after tax of Rs 122 crore compared to a loss of Rs 121 crore in the second quarter last year.

Meanwhile, in the domestic market, IHCL clocked a more than 20% growth over pre-COVID levels in key cities. Its hotels in the US, UK, Dubai and Maldives too displayed a strong recovery.

Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director & CEO, IHCL, said, “Business recovery remains robust and demand for travel continued to strengthen with India and other key markets like the US and UK growing double-digits year-on-year; driving a 67% growth in revenue and a return to strong profitability in the traditionally weakest quarter for the industry.”

Giridhar Sanjeevi, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, IHCL added, “Despite inflationary pressures, rate premiums enabled by the strength of our brands has resulted in an EBITDA margin of 25.4% and 30.6% for IHCL Consolidated and Standalone for the second quarter, respectively, which is an expansion of over 7 percentage points as compared to pre-COVID. IHCL continues to report a healthy consolidated free cash flow of Rs 181 crore and remains net cash positive.”

IHCL strengthened its portfolio with nine new hotels till date in FY23 including the recently opened Sawai Man Mahal, Jaipur; Taj Wayanad Resort & Spa, Kerala; Vivanta Meghalaya, Shillong; Vivanta Ahmedabad; Ginger Goregaon, Mumbai and Ginger Ahmedabad.

Separately, it signed seven new hotels last quarter with one hotel each under the Taj, Vivanta and Ginger brands and four hotels under the SeleQtions brand.