Mahindra Holidays to invest Rs 550 crore to add new rooms

The additional inventory will be added in the next 2-2.5 years, during this time the company is also open for looking partners to promote projects and for acquisitions

Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd (MHRIL), the leisure and hospitality company of the $16.7-billion Mahindra Group, is planning to invest around Rs 550 crore. The proposed investment is to add around 500-550 units.

Kavinder Singh, managing director and chief executive, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India, said that current inventory of the company is 3,004 units and the company decided to add around 500-550 units through green-field and brown-field expansions in Shimla, Goa and Kerala, with an investment of around Rs 550 crore.

The additional inventory will be added in the next two-2.5 years. During this time, the company is also open to looking for partners to promote projects, and for acquisitions, said Singh.

The investment will be funded mainly through internal accruals, said Singh, adding that MHRIL is a debt- free company. The company has added 125 rooms during the quarter taking and has 46 resorts in India and abroad. It has 31 resorts in Finland, Spain and Sweden, under its Finland-based subsidiary to cater Club Mahindra’s over two lakh members.

“We are also open for acquisitions both in domestic and international markets, especially in South East Asia and Europe,” said Singh.

MHRIL has posted a growth of 20 per cent in net profit at Rs 30.24 crore during the quarter ended June 30, 2016, as compared to Rs 25.2 crore during the corresponding quarter of previous financial year.

“We have been aided by the resort income, annual fee income as well as interest income and of course, we had a growth of 18 per cent in members. We have an all-round income increase. On expenditure, we have a much tighter control of costs in this quarter, which has led to expansion in the EBITDA margin, which is up by 50 basis points,” said Singh.

“It’s a benefit that we are now gaining of the scale that we have, which is giving us a scale related benefit in profit after tax,” he added.

Total income stood at Rs 249.67 crore during the quarter, as against Rs 231.03 crore posted during the same period of last year, an increase of 8.07 per cent.