Indian Hotels net up 43% on higher ARRs

BS 200 SCORECARD

Backed by a healthy improvement in ARRs (average room rates) across its the portfolio and a steady growth in its food and beverage business across all key markets, Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) posted 43 per cent growth in net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2006.

The profit stood at Rs 87.99 crore compared with Rs 61.5 crore in the previous corresponding period.

The total income of the hotels group rose 26 per cent to Rs 412.3 crore in the period under review vis-a-vis Rs 328.5 crore a year earlier.

During the reporting quarter, IHCL "� through one of its associate entities "� picked up 80.62 per cent stake in Kochi-based Amalgam Foods & Beverages, which has a portfolio of frozen ready-to-fry and ready-to-cook offerings under the Sumeru brand.

IHCL, which has the experience of food serving in airlines for the past 40 years, is keen on cashing in on its expertise in the ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat food business. It sees this sector as a lucrative opportunity.

IHCL's Taj group of hotels, last week, secured the contract for renovating and running Rail Yatri Niwas in Delhi on a 15-year lease.

The group, which entered into a deal with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, will renovate the Yatri Niwas into a Ginger hotel with 100 rooms.

The company also launched a new ginger hotel in Pune, signed licence agreement for a new five-star hotel at Bangalore and commissioned it first Wild Life Lodge at Mahua Kothi, Bandhavgarh National Park.

The company also concluded the formalities relating to the purchase of Ritz Carlton Hotel in Boston for a price of $170 million (Rs 765 crore). The hotel has been renamed Taj Boston. The company is building new five-star hotels in Mumbai, Coimbatore and Bangalore.

The IHCL scrip today opened on the BSE at Rs 158 and traded almost flat to close the day at Rs 157.45.