MUMBAI: The Indian Hotels Company, the Tata group holding company that owns and operates the Taj brand of luxury hotels along with seven other brands, is on an aggressive overseas expansion with about 10 per cent of the planned 350 new properties to be added by 2030.
Since FY18, the company has been on a strong wicket, more than doubling the number of properties to 350 of which 238 are operational on one hand and nearly doubling its revenue on the other from Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 7,000 crore in FY24. What’s more important is that the company has turned debt-free and is sitting on a cash pile of Rs 2,000 crore as of FY24 as against a debt pile of Rs 3,000 crore in FY17. Similarly, the company closed FY24 with a net income of Rs 1,259 crore as against a paltry Rs 63 crore in FY17.
“The group’s broader plan is to take the overall properties to 700 by 2030 and of which more than 500 will be operational, offering close to 70,000 keys by 2030, up from 238 offering a little over 25,000 keys now. The top-line should climb to Rs 15,000 crore by then. Of the planned new additions, at least 10 percent of the new properties will be overseas,” Puneet Chhatwal, the managing director and chief executive, who was roped in by the Tatas in November 2017 to turn around the company, has said.
However, he did not offer a revenue share projection or the current share from overseas operations. Similarly, he did not offer a possible number of rooms as well which these 35-40 properties will be adding.
“Our foreign expansion will only be with the Taj brand and not any other,” Chhatwal said, adding “in London we have two operational properties. We are keen to add one more. In fact, we can have two more properties in the British capital.
“Similarly, for Europe, we are opening a hotel soon in Frankfurt over the next 10 months and are identifying locations in Berlin, Brussels, Paris and Switzerland, too. For Asia, we are already present in Dubai with three operational properties and will be adding one or two; there are two underdevelopment in Saudi Arabia, and one in Bahrain. Also, we will be adding more in Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka shortly where we already operate three and more in Bhutan where we already have four and adding a property more to the two operational in Dhaka,” he said.
The growth strategy will be both organic as well inorganic, Chhatwal said, “we are always on the lookout for a good property for accelerated growth.”