Chalet Hotels Limited (CHALET) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Chalet Hotels Limited, quarter four and full year ended 31st March 2026 conference call. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all bias pin lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Shwetank Singh, Managing Director and CEO. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you, Michelle, and a very good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to welcome you to this call today. We value this forum as it gives us an opportunity to share our journey, discuss the growth roadmap ahead. Also, it is imminent that we reflect on the evolving geopolitical and macroeconomic landscape that influences our industry today. As always, we welcome your queries and perspectives. They keep us anchored, focused, and aligned in our pursuit of long-term value creation for all our stakeholders. The fiscal year 25-26, and indeed the last quarter, has been quite remarkable both for the industry at large and for Chalet in particular. Over the past year, the industry has navigated a complex and dynamic environment shaped by several macroeconomic and geopolitical events. These included Operation Sindur, trade tariff-related uncertainties, aviation disruptions, extreme weather conditions, And the heightened geopolitical tensions in West Asia. Despite these challenges, the industry delivered a resilient and robust performance marked by strong rev-par growth, primarily driven by sustained expansion in average room rates. This performance underscores the inherent strength of the domestic hospitality sector, supported by rising disposable incomes, evolving consumer preferences, India's expanding economic footprint and a strong resurgence in mice activity, and not to forget the evergreen demand driven by weddings. Importantly, while there has been a healthy pipeline of signings by both domestic and global hotel brands, supply continues to lag behind, reinforcing our confidence and excitement as we plan ahead. Turning specifically to the quarter, performance was uneven across three months. January began on a softer note, with no auspicious dates for weddings, and additionally, Mumbai. of the month. Republic Day falling on a Monday. These factors collectively impacted demand, particularly in Mumbai. It is also important to note that the base for January last year was strong, supported by large concerts, including international events like Coldplay and significant mice activity, elements that were absent this year. February was very strong, with both ADRs and occupancies picking up. However, towards the end of February, the escalation of geopolitical tensions in West Asia began to materially impact global travel patterns, leading to notable disruptions in March with widespread cancellation across segments. In the context of international business travel, it is important to recognize the multiplier effect it creates. Overseas executive visits are typically accompanied by respective teams within India. International business travels slowed down in March. This associated domestic business demand also got impacted. Consequently, the quarter saw a meaningful impact in the form of both confirmed cancellations and opportunity losses. Despite these short-term disruptions, we remain confident in the structural strength of our business and the broader industry fundamentals. Our balance sheet remains strong. Our asset portfolio is well-positioned, and our growth strategy is aligned with long-term demand drivers. We continue to focus on disciplined execution, operational excellence, and prudent capital allocation as we move forward. With that context about the industry and macro environment, let me talk about our own performance and strategic initiatives. The year 2526 has been a milestone year for us as our consolidated revenue crossed the Rs.25 billion mark and the EBITDA crossed the Rs.10 billion mark, reflecting both the scale and inherent strength of our diversified platform. Excluding the residential business, our revenue grew by 18% year-on-year to Rs. 20,741 million with EBITDA of Rs. 9,573 million up 21% year-on-year. Importantly, EBITDA margin improved by 97 BIPs to 46.2%. For the quarter, our consolidated revenue was up by 6% year-on-year to Rs. 5,711 million with EBITDA of Rs. 2,786 million up 8% year-on-year. EBITDA margins improved by 100 BIPs to 48.8%. Excluding the residential business, our revenue was very similar. Growing 6% year-on-year to Rs. 5,706 million with EBITDA of Rs. 2,800 million up 7% year-on-year. EBITDA margin improved by 13 BIPs to 49.1%. Let me now touch upon the hospitality business performance that is core of our platform. For the year, hospitality business grew 14% year-on-year. On the revenue and 12% year-on-year on EBITDA, reflecting sustained demand and resilient pricing dynamics. On the quarter, hospitality revenue grew 3% year-on-year, while EBITDA stood at Rs. 2,248 million, up 1% year-on-year. From an operating perspective, REVPA declined 3% year-on-year in quarter 4, largely driven by a 7.7% drop in occupancy. As I highlighted earlier, this was predominantly a function of Mumbai underperforming relative to the rest of the industry. As per industry reports, Mumbai ADR growth was only 0-2% in occupancy and a decline of 0-2%. During January to March 26 compared to last year. In contrast, India overall average recorded ADR growth of 6 to 8% with a limited occupancy decline of 0 to 2 percentage points. If we look at our segment in the micro markets that we are present in, the variance was even starker. Additionally, our Powai property continues to face temporary constraints due to ongoing construction of Cygnus II tower, which has impacted weddings. and mice demand along with the crew, thereby affecting occupancies. Given Mumbai's high contribution to our hospitality revenues, these factors masked the otherwise healthy performance that we had across the rest of our portfolio. Compared to business hotels, resorts did very well during this quarter. Western Rishikesh has delivered a strong performance and has continued its momentum into April and May. Ativa Khandala did its first full quarter of full inventory. We did multiple marketing activities during this period to create market awareness and this was all exceptionally well received. The pickup in occupancy with ADR sustaining north of Rs.15,000 gives us confidence for the upcoming monsoons which will be followed by the wedding season. Coming to our commercial real estate business. During the quarter, we signed LOI for an additional 67,000 square foot at Bangalore, taking the overall occupancy to over 83%. Occupancy at Powai remains strong at 90%. Our March 26th run rate of rentals touched Rs. 280 million as indicated in the last call. While growth in FY26-27 would be driven by improvement in occupancies at Pauai and Bangalore, commissioning of Cygnus II in FY27-28 will bring a major growth in this business. Now, let me talk about our strategic initiatives during the quarter, starting with pipeline expansion. Chalet now has 3,389 operating keys with a pipeline of approximately 1,655 keys across 7 assets. That takes the total key count to more than 5,000, marking another milestone in our journey. During the quarter, we added two major projects to our pipeline, both in high-demand destinations with strategic advantage and potential to deliver high returns over the long term. Udaipur. We completed the acquisition at Udaipur Resort, marking our entry into this fast-growing and deep leisure market of Udaipur. We have paid a total consideration of Rs. 1710 million for a 144 key resort spread over 8.2 acres of land, reducing the land to launch risk substantially. The location is very prime and the land is very beautiful. We intend to significantly upgrade the infrastructure and rooms before we rebuild and relaunch the property as an upper upscale resort, a wide open space in the Udaypur market with limited new supply. We are also evaluating expansion potential through different avenues. Clarity on this shall emerge in the next few months. Thus, we are not able to share the project timelines, capex, and brand-related information at this stage. But what I can tell you today is that this will be another marquee asset for our portfolio. Hyderabad. In February, we announced an ultra-luxury 330-key hotel in Hyderabad, a greenfield project located outside Mindspace, Madhapur. The hotel will operate under the Ritz Carlton brand. This is our first ultra-luxury project, and we are excited about this, especially given the prime location in Hyderabad and that has strong demand for luxury. Also, it helps us in positioning, given our strong presence in the micro market with two properties already operational and performing very well. The hotel will be constructed by Mindspace REIT, and we shall be taking over a warm shell on a long-term lease basis. Our fit-out cost shall be close to Rs. 5600 million, and largely after we get the position in quarter 4 FY28, so it is back-ended. We expect the launch, to launch this project by end of FY28-29. I am also delighted to share that our Corporate Sustainability Assessment Score by Dow Jones Sustainability Index has jumped from 67 to 82 this year, putting us at second place globally among the hospitality peers. This is a significant achievement given our thrust on sustainable growth. Also, I would like to highlight that our green energy consumption has now moved up to 65%. Let me now talk about the updates on live projects. Work is at full swing in the Cygnus 2 Hawaii, and we are on track for an FY27 end substantial completion, although the West Asia crisis has put some pressure on labor availability. We expect to launch Seventy rooms at Taj Project at Delhi International Airport by Quarter 4 FY27 with balance inventory to be launched in a phased manner thereafter. Mindspace has begun excavation work at Hyderabad and Irohli. Both the projects are on track. In summary, the Indian hospitality industry's performance is being driven by a potent mix of strong domestic travel. Higher disposable incomes, improved infrastructure and connectivity, event-linked tourism, and a favorable demand-supply gap. There might be some short-term hiccups, but the story continues to unfold in a positive manner. Chalet is well geared up to seize the opportunity with strong cash flows and robust growth pipeline. With that, I will now hand over to Nitin, who will take you through the financial details of the quarter.

Thanks, Svitank. Good morning to everyone on the call. I am pleased to walk you through our financial performance for the quarter and the year ended, 31st March, 2026, and also provide perspective on key financial and performance drivers, balance sheet strength, and capital allocation. Starting with the full year, our Consolidate revenue increased by 60% year-on-year to $28124 million. Supported by residential revenue recognition during the year. EBITDA grew correspondingly by 59% year-on-year to $12,301 million. EBITDA margins stood at 43.7%. Excluding the residential segment, our performance reflects the underlying strength of the operating businesses. Ex-residential revenue grew 18% year-on-year. to Rs. 20,741 million while EBITDA increased 21% year-on-year to 9,573 million. EBITDA margins expanded by 97 basis points to 46%. Driven by operating leverage, strong cost discipline, and portfolio mix. Moving to the quarter, Consolidate revenue grew 6% year-on-year to $5,711 million, with an EBITDA of $2,786 million, up 8% year-on-year. This has resulted in a 100 basis point improvement in EBITDA margin to 48.8%. On an ex-residential basis, quarterly revenues stood at Rs. 5,706 million, up 6% year-on-year, with an EBITDA of Rs. 2,800 million, also reflecting 6% year-on-year growth. The EBITDA margin improved by 13 business points to 49.1%, highlighting the consistency in underlying operating performance. Let me now cover the hospitality segment. For the full year, hospitality revenues grew 14% year-on-year to $17,311 million, supported by incremental inventory and repair growth. EBITDA increased 12% year-on-year to Rs. 7,603 million, with EBITDA margins at 43.9%, a decline of 81 basis points year-on-year. Rapper for the year was up by 5% to Rs. 9226. For the quarter, hospitality revenue rose 3% year-on-year to Rs. 4740 million with EBITDA of Rs. 2248 million up 1% year-on-year. EBITDA margin for the quarter stood at 47.4%, lower by 102 basis points. The moderation in margins is primarily attributable to portfolio mix and stabilization dynamics. Our resort assets are at an early stage of stabilization, with average occupancy at around 43% for the year, which we expect to trend towards 60% as these assets mature. Additionally, the P&L currently absorbs costs related to incremental inventory at Bangalore, which, as highlighted in earlier calls, is a transitory impact, and this shall normalize as occupancies ramp up over the next few quarters. We remain focused on maintaining cost-efficient operating structures, project productivity, and exercising disciplined asset-level cost control as the portfolio scales. Turning to the commercial real estate businesses, this segment continues to provide high-margin, stable cash flows. For the year, CRE revenues grew 55% year-on-year to Rs. 3061 million and 37% year-on-year to Rs. 847 million for the quarter. The monthly rental exit run rate in March 26 stood at Rs. 280 million. On the profitability front, full-year EBITDA increased 65% year-on-year to Rs. 2,544 million, translating into a strong EBITDA margin of 83.1%. Quarterly EBITDA stood at Rs. 708 million of 42% year-on-year, with an EBITDA margin of 83.6%. Current portfolio committed is at approximately 88%. We expect monthly renters to scale up to Rs. 300 million during FY27. Commissioning of Signals 2 at Powai will lead to a step change in growth FY28 onwards. Moving to residential project, during the year, we handed over 152 units, resulting in a revenue recognition of Rs. 7,383 million and EBITDA of Rs. 2,728 million. To briefly refresh the project structure, Phase 1 residential has been completed with 152 units handed over and 1 unit pending handing over. Phase 2 residential comprising 168 units is under development with handover expected in FY27. The project also includes 1,60,000 square feet of commercial space which is yet to be developed and will be leased post-completion. Coming to balance sheet debt and capital allocation. Over the last two years, we have deployed approximately rupees 19 billion towards growth capex and acquisitions. Despite this significant investment phase, net debt has reduced from rupees 25 billion as of March 24 to approximately 19 billion as of March 26. While a portion of this deleveraging was supported by equity inflow in April 25, It is important to highlight that approximately $15 billion has been funded through internal accruals, reflecting the strength of our operating cash flows and disciplined capital allocation. We continue to maintain comfortable liquidity position with a cash buffer of around Rs. 4 billion as of year-end. The average cost of finance remains stable at 7.48% as of March 26. From a capital deployment perspective, capital work-in-progress and assets not yielding returns stood at Rs. 8.3 billion at year-end, providing visibility on near-to-medium-term growth. Looking ahead, we have outlined a planned capex of approximately Rs. 30 billion over F527 to F529 across our hospitality and commercial real estate portfolio. This includes announced acquisition and committed investments, and importantly, is expected to be largely funded through internal accruals, underscoring our focus on maintaining balance sheet discipline. We have also taken an enabling approval for debt raise of up to Rs.10 billion. To clarify, this is purely enabling in nature, and there is no immediate plan to raise incremental debt. Overall, our balance sheet continues to provide adequate headroom. And financial flexibility to pursue strategic opportunities as they arise. The CRE portfolio with 2.4 million square feet of leasable area has the potential to generate rupees 3 to 4 billion of annual cash flows at stabilization. Combined with strong EBITDA generation from the hospitality business, this creates a robust and sustainable free cash flow base to support our long-term growth strategy. With that, I would like to open the floor for questions. Thank you.

Thank you very much, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin with the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask questions may please press star and 1 on their touchtone phone. If you wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking questions. In order to ensure that the management will be able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, kindly limit your questions to only two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Vikas Ahuja from Antic Stock Broking. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning to the management and thanks for taking my question. Sir, my first question is, why did we choose to do the subsidiary level dilution structure for dial instead of funding it entirely through internal acquisition or maybe through debt? I mean, for us, this was a great deal we got, and now we are diluting stake. It's a little confusing for me. And what are the investors incoming in dial? What strategic value do they bring beyond capital? Any color on this would be great, and after that, I have a follow-up. Thank you.

Good morning, Vikas. Thank you for the question. Look, we are implementing a number of projects at this stage, and we have also announced some acquisitions recently, as you are well aware. In order to manage this growth in a very calibrated manner, the board has approved a one-time proposal for a minority equity shareholding in just one of our projects. So, it is not something that we are sort of taking for the long term. It is for one of the projects. We have done it at Dial because it's a project under execution, as you are well aware. It is a great project. Nothing has changed on the fundamentals of the project at all. This is one strategic call that we have taken to fully understand this space. That's all there is to it at this stage.

Okay, thank you. And also, you know, given the large upcoming pipeline, including, you know, like Hyderabad and the DIAL, Hyateroli, Gooperatives, how should we think about, you know, annual CAPEX intensity over FY27 to FY29? How much of this CAPEX upcoming should be funded through internal approvals versus internal debt? And what is the expected peak debt if we can, you know, I understand with Dial also, we are just trying to manage the debt levels, what we have done. If any peak debt guidance we can get would be great.

Yeah, so Nitin actually referred to it in his speech in quite a lot of detail. Just high level, I'll give you, then Nitin will give you more details. I mean, he correctly pointed out that over the last two years, we've invested about 19 billion in CapEx. And 15 billion of that came from internal accruals. The proof of the pudding is in the fact that 25 billion was our debt earlier, two years back. We are at 19 billion. So whilst we have been investing in the capital, we have actually been reducing debt. So our internal accruals remains very strong. Our capital work in progress right now is 8.3 billion, something that is not yielding any output for us. In total, we are expecting to invest about 30 billion between FY27 and 29. How we are going to fund it, Nitin will give you a little bit more idea.

Look, thanks, Rikas. Look, the same cash flow momentum will continue. And I don't see any major capital which we are going to draw from the borrowings as such. Unless there is a very strategic acquisition coming in our face. So for announced projects, this entire 30 billion will be funded through internal accruals. Secondly, I also pointed out that the CRE business, you know, the one project which is already in pipeline, they start giving us results in FY28, FY29. So that's one big, you know, jump which we'll see from a CRE business. From a hospitality business, we still have two assets which are in the ramp-up stage. You see Ativa, which has just launched in November 25, we have yet to see the complete results. From the FPS part, we're launching Ativa in the next quarter, you still see a ramp-up which is coming over there. Bangalore, 120 plus rooms, we still see that effect on EBITDA coming in. So, I am fairly confident that from the same momentum, you know, from the cash flow will continue, and we will be doing the efficient capital allocation as we have been doing in the recent past.

Sorry, just to add, the new commercial real estate that's coming up is also 900,000 square foot. So, you know, it's a big development, and that will be very value accretive for us in terms of cash flows.

Yes, sir. This is helpful. One final bookkeeping, you know, ADR uptick of 8% possible to get, you know, same store number. Also, you know, can management share FY27 ADR outlook if we have any? Because, you know, with the outbound international travel becoming expensive and domestic leisure demand improving, do you think chalet, city heavy, merit-led portfolio to see relatively lower same store ADR versus the peer? That's my final question, sir. Thanks a lot.

No, not really. We continue to believe in the strength of the business. In fact, if you have heard the recent announcements from our Honorable Prime Minister, he's spoken about encouraging more travel within India. So, it's a trend that we are closely watching out for. Already, I think the Middle East… This image has taken a bit of a beating, and therefore we actually expect the marriages to move from Middle East back to India. So actually we are expecting a strong recovery and bounce back in the second half of the year, broadly speaking. So we don't see any slowdown coming yet.

So, my question was, they are more corporate-heavy versus, you know, some of your peers, which are more leisure-heavy. So, you know, for example, this quarter also, our FPA number, I mean, even the EDR number was a little lower than the peers. So, I was trying to understand that whether that trend, you think, will continue in the near term. Because, you know, flying to other countries have become expensive, but it's the same. It's vice versa also, right? And we get our FIT number is much higher than some of the others.

So, we hear you. It's not that it's a trend that we don't look for, but we don't see any slowing down in particular for any of these reasons. Yes, we are a bit business heavy, but we are also being diversifying our portfolio into the leisure side. So, we are absolutely in a good space with respect to all of this, I think.

Okay, sir. Thank you. Wish you luck for the next part.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sumit Sena from Macquarie. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you. So I had a couple of questions, kind of going deeper into the previous one. Clearly, domestic travel has picked up, and hopefully it will continue to gain momentum, especially over the summer. Can you talk about sort of what... What initial trends you are seeing in terms of spend, especially in the context of the statement that you made earlier where foreign travelers tend to travel with other people, especially domestic executives and that, so there's a multiplied effect there. So that is one question. My second is, in terms of commercial leasing, You're saying that it will be totally leaked out by fiscal 28. Any reason it could take that long, or what's the holdup? I know in the past that you've spoken about that you were very careful about the quality of the counterparty there. Is that the reason, or is the Bangalore market seeing any sort of different macro impact? Let me take the questions in the two parts. On the commercial leasing side, actually, we have had a very decent pickup on Bangalore. I think we have now upped our occupancy to nearly 91% in Bangalore. So, I think we have made good progress there. And actually, part of our comment on the leasing was for Cygnus 2. It was not for our existing inventory. Our existing inventory is nearly, is above 90% occupancy right now. So, you know, we can, we, I suspect that we can only, we only have a 10% play there. So, there's, and if you see, our exit has almost reached the 30 crore per month mark. So I think on the leasing side, we are doing fairly well. With the recent pickup, our occupancies have improved quite dramatically. With respect to foreign tourist arrivals, of course, there is a geopolitical tension that is unresolved as we speak, and it continues to be a space that we monitor, but we have pivoted during this period. We have closely monitored this trend and therefore gone back to some of our corporates. Thank you. We are monitoring this trend closely. We expect it all to return very quickly after the tensions subside. On the leisure side, there seems to be no stopping. People continue to want to travel. Our leisure portfolio is doing very well. Adhiva Khandala in particular, we are still stabilizing. So, you know, the growth potential on that is very, very substantial for this year.

Got it. Thank you. Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line of Prateek Kumar from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Yeah, good morning. Good morning, sir. My first question is on your quarter. Can you split your quarter like on a month-wise basis, particularly discussing March? So because you're at ref bar of minus 3% compared to 6% to 8% per year. So what specifically have hurt you more and how is your March performance and then maybe how on the net basis things have, I don't know if it has improved in April, May or how are they shaping up?

Okay, good question, even though the question hurts us, but it's still a good question. Actually, in my speech, I referred to a very steady January for the reasons that Mumbai was not... Thank you. And they're brilliant, they stay longer, they consume more F&B, they stay around the hotel, and they have higher per diem, so they pay us better. In the south hotels, particularly in March, what we witnessed was a dramatic amount of cancellations. Just to give you a number, we lost almost 9,000 room nights from foreign tourist arrivals, and some attached. Business, as I had referred to in my speech from the domestic side, which was a much smaller number, but still an attached number. Overall, I think the political tensions have caused about a 10 to 12 percent disruption in our business. If that hadn't happened, I think we would have been really strong. When you compare us to our peers, you have to also sort of look at the fact that our portfolio is where it is. And given that portfolio, we have had great days. And this was an unfortunate quarter from our perspective, where we were in a micro market, which was not very strong, but that tends to change. These are short term trends. Fundamentally, Mumbai is still one of the strongest markets this country has. And the fact that there is such demand, there are such barriers to entry, we will be continuing to operate. We will be continuing to operate in a very, very strong market, I think.

And how has this trend moved live of foreign tourists, which is 40% of the mix in April, May? Have this significantly improved or how has that changed?

So, you know, it's not a good idea to just look at percentages. We heard a lot of our peers talk about just percentages because, you know, percentages can be misleading when the overall demand itself is dropped. So the way to look at it is the real loss in room nights. And as I said, just for March alone, we lost about 9,000 room nights from foreign tourist arrivals. It has become a bit better. April has been stronger and actually has surprised us also on a year on year trend. And May is really strong. But to give you a full picture, May last year at this time was very weak because of Operation Sindhu. So we are getting a bit of an advantage for that. June looks steady. So this quarter will be fairly strong overall is our expectation.

Sure, thank you.

One other question on KPEX. So, this year, we ended up doing KPEX of 400 crore versus like around 800 to 900 crore expectation, I think, which we generally were guiding.

Mr. Kudrik Kumar, can you please rejoin the queue for follow-ups, please? We have a queue, sir. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we would request all the participants to kindly limit their questions to only one per participant as we have a long queue for questions. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akash Gupta from Nomura. Please go ahead.

Hi, am I audible?

Yes, sir. Please proceed.

Hi, congrats on great performance for the quarter. So my question number one is that we have multiple hotels which are leading stabilization phase in FY27, and then we also have introduced, we have done new acquisitions over the past two years. I just wanted a quick summary on where are we in the stabilization phase of each of the hotels, and how should we look? Add that by Fy27. That's my fourth question.

Thank you, Akash. I really like you. You're the first one who's acknowledged a good performance. Just to sort of talk about our portfolio, let me break it down. Let's take the easy one first. We have added 129 rooms to Bangalore, and as Nitin keeps pointing out, 129-room addition is like adding a whole new hotel. So that is still picking up, and therefore, you must have seen an occupancy drop overall in Bangalore. But that's because we are still absorbing the new set of rooms. It came at a time where there was geopolitical headwind, so the timing was not great in hindsight. But we still believe that by becoming one of the largest hotels in that micro market, we are going to sort of gain from the inventory size and quickly rebound to a 60% occupancy. So there is a big headroom that's coming from Bangalore very clearly. Moving on, Ativa Khandala is only entering its first proper operational year, and with the positioning that we have managed to do for it, with ADR's north of 15,000, we believe that there is a very strong... Potential of growth there in this year and in the coming two to three years. Therefore, you know, we can expect a very, very good sort of performance coming from there. On the customer side, we have had excellent feedback, very well received. And that's something that we have been actually working on very consciously and spending a lot of marketing dollars on. And that seems to have worked because most all. Almost every feedback that we have had is brilliant, and our rating is over 4.9 on TripAdvisor. So, very good performance there from that hotel. FPS, which we are rebranding to Athiva, will also see a big upside, mainly because that market has become stronger in that area with the opening of the new airport. Also, the fact that we have invested close to 100 crores in that property, completely gutting it out and rebuilding it from scratch. Our projects team has done a brilliant job. It's a hush-bender design, and what has come out as a product is absolutely beautiful, and we expect that to, again, have a very strong impact overall on the portfolio in terms of growth. Looking at our other two resorts, Western Rishikesh had a very difficult year last year with Operation Sindur and the fact that we had monsoons. So on a low base, a stabilizing hotel is expected to give a very good growth over last year. Our courtyard at Arawali, which has now been rebranded to Marriott Arawali, should also have a significant upside, given that there is a clear brand uptick on it, and Delhi NCR being a very brand-conscious market, we expect the rates to go up as a result. So, overall, we have multiple opportunities. There have been F&B outlets that we have opened, which are not stabilized. Those are also growth. There are a few additions that we are doing through our asset sweating route, which we will keep announcing in subsequent quarters. So there's a lot of work that's going on within the portfolio, which should give us significant upside overall.

Thank you for that answer. So my second question is your two acquisitions. The Udaipur and Hyderabad one. Sir, could you give us an understanding as to how you are thinking about those two micro markets? And second is, what kind of IRRs have you baked in into the calculations for these numbers? And what kind of ADR growth rates have you baked in for these IRRs? Thank you so much.

Look, our stated strategy on development has always been very clear. We want to be putting up big boxes, taking large concentrated bets in key markets just ahead of the infrastructure curve. On the leisure side, we have always said that we wanted to diversify our portfolio to get to at least 20% of our revenue from the leisure segment. And leisure we define as drivable distance, which is about an hour, hour and a half from a key airport. Besides this, we have also said that we will look at some deep markets in leisure such as Goa, Udaipur, Jaipur, etc. So, it has always been our stated strategy to go to these markets, and we have taken a very proactive approach to our development strategy. Having said that, coming to Udaipur, we have always believed Udaipur is a deep market. If you look at our acquisitions more recently, we have basically focused on reducing the land to launch risk. While Greenfield is our strength and continues to stay our strength, we believe that the maximum value resides in turning around opportunities such as Udaipur, where we are taking up a resort and actually gutting it completely and refurbishing it to a much higher level and positioning. Coming from Dukes is a classic example of that. We see Udaipur similarly. All segments are firing in Udaipur today and continue to do so. A classic example is the issues that the world faced right now with the geopolitical tensions, actually Udaipur gained overall because those marriages came back to Udaipur from being destination weddings outside the country. So Udaipur continues to stay strong. We have taken up a case where we can actually make refurbishment and reposition. Hyderabad has been on fire for a long time, and that particular micro-market we love because we have 13 million square foot of our own office space there in that micro-market from our sister-concern, Mindspace. We already have two hotels there in the two Westins. This is the third, taking full advantage of the cluster, giving us a new position point also, and give us an advantage so that we can actually start to dictate the price in that market. Taking it on lease. From MindSpaces, I think, is also a brilliant strategy because it actually lowers our capex burden to the extent of the warm shell and also backends our fitment cost on the capex side. And, you know, we have publicly spoken of a 560 million capex overall, but there are two things that I want to remind you all. First of all, it will be back-ended. Second of all, it also includes about 40,000 square foot of commercial space, the cost of which is also built into that capex. So, you know, we continue to remain very efficient when it comes to the capex side. We believe that that market is really strong and will continue to grow. In fact, we don't mind looking at a few more hotels in and around financial district of Hyderabad also. The GCC story of India is very clear. There have been multiple articles recently that you must have seen. Everything seems to have grown in that sector, and India continues to be very strong, and that's something that we have complete trust and faith in.

Understood, sir. Thank you so much.

Oh, sorry. One second. Sorry. Apologies. It's not 560 million. It's 560 crores. I missed a zero. I wish it was 560 million.

Thank you. A request to all the participants to kindly restrict their questions to only one. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. We'll take the next question from the line of Adidev Chattopadhyay from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.

Yes, I'll just squeeze in my questions in one shot. Sir, first is just the accounting thing on the capital WIP of more than 800 crores. Where does this sit on the balance sheet as of March 26? Because the capital WIP number looks just north of 100 crores. Could you just clarify on that? And other question is, on our Bombay hotels, the operation was, the Westin and the 4.0 is getting converted into Atheiva now. If you could just help us, you alluded in your opening remarks that occupancy has been impacted a bit by the Cygnus Tower 2 construction. So, at 27, what is the outlook on occupancy considering this? And with the Atheiva rebranding in Vashi, how do you see the occupancy trending in the year 27? That's also the other questions from my side.

God, we have lost track of the questions, but Nitin will start with the CapEx question and then we will jump in for the other parts, please.

Actually sits, you know, from an accounting balance sheet perspective in three segments. So, one is, of course, the direct CWIP. The second is, if you see the notes to accounts, it actually sits in IPUC, which is around 486 crores. The CWIP pure number is 132 crores, and balance is actually lying under inventory, which is around 269. So, if you add that up, that comes to around 800 crores. Shretan.

Let me just deal with the Ativa question first. At FPS, that market has always been strong. We have always been a leader in that market. And by a very, very long margin, we actually chose this opportunity to invest significantly in that property because we wanted to rebrand it at a higher level. For our brand, and therefore we made that investment. We don't see any slowing down in that market. In fact, we expect that market to be growing quite rapidly, and I think our timing of launch on that market has been quite fortuitous. Doesn't always happen like that, but in this case, we have managed to time it quite well, is my belief. Coming to Powai, I think we did mention that there is a short-term stress on the occupancy side because we have an under-construction commercial building there. The stress is coming because of two, three factors. One is the crew doesn't like the noise. They like to sleep in odd hours of the day as and when their flights come in. So we've had some crew that has left us. We have managed to retain some of them in JW Sahar, but we have still had a net outflow on that. Secondly, we have lost the porch of the banquet space, mainly because there was a connectivity at the basement level with the building next door that's under construction. We are rapidly closing that out, and we should be able to close it out fully and significantly in the next quarter. Let's get our mice and I answered all your questions and they have missed something.

No, sir, that is, I think, fairly clear. So broadly to take away, 27, these things should get ironed out, at least at...

Mr. Dr. Padhoy, can you please rejoin the queue, sir? We have a long time. Okay, okay, fine, fine. Thank you. I would request all the participants to kindly limit their questions to only one. Please rejoin the queue for follow-up questions. We will take the next question from Karan Khanna from Ambed Capiti. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks, and just two quick questions. Firstly, in terms of the guidance for pipeline addition for FI27, given that you've already crossed 5,000 keys with guidance at the start of the year, so how should we think about that going into FI27, and which segment will it be more leisure or business? So that's question number one. And secondly, just a clarification on this card in Hyderabad. Is the capex number 560 crores, which is as per the presentation, or 630 crores as per the press release? And is it safe to assume, you know, 25,000 ARR and 80% stabilized occupancy? And, you know, when can we expect stabilization of this hotel? And just to follow up on this, what can be the lease payments, more like 15% lease payment to Mindspace REIT, or will it be higher? And in that context, what kind of margins are you expecting? for this project.

Right. By the time you got to your second question, I've forgotten the first one. So let me deal with the second one first, Karan. So the one in Hyderabad is 560 crores of capex. When we had reported it in the press, we had actually done the right thing by adding IDC. And the lease deposit, and therefore that had added up to 630. We realized that the market didn't interpret it that way, and hence we wanted to clarify this, that the pure construction cost that's going into the building is 560 crores, including 40,000 square foot of commercial space. So it is still very, very efficient, probably at the top end of CapEx deployment in that price positioning of the hotel. Coming to the price positioning, should we expect $25,000? I think quite easily. Today, the market at the top end is driven by ITC, and we know that they are fairly in that region already, if not higher than that. So there is no reason for us not to expect that kind of pricing from a hotel which will be brand new and probably much superior to the comp set there. So that's the second part of the conversation.

Karan, from a direction perspective, I think we normally don't give, you know, future directions in a very specific property. And this is again a capex, which is a back-ended. I would suggest, you know, to keep this information up to this level only.

Sure. And on the pipeline for FH27, Shaitan, how does that look like? Is there a guidance you'd like to lay out for that?

Yeah, so look... I hope you like our expansion plans, because we are now up to 1655, taking up to over 5000 keys, so I think we are probably amongst the best in the market. Are we going to stop there is your main question. Absolutely not. We continue to be in a growth phase as a company. We love our group and sister companies as well. So we tend to work with them for a while. It just helps us to follow the commercial development. It just gives us captive demand and almost ensures that we start on a very, very strong base. As soon as, you know, we come to the opening. So overall, we love expansion. We are going to continue to expand. What are we going to do in terms of what kind of assets? We continue to be very efficient on the green field. We love conversions because we know that we can sort of reduce the risk on land to launch and get a higher return on our CapEx employed overall. But we will also not stop at acquiring good hotels like the Western Rishikesh or the Marriott in Aravalli because we know that it significantly reduces the execution risk for us overall and gets us to cash flows very quickly.

Thank you, sir. I request to all the participants to kindly not to club the questions and restrict themselves to only one question for participants. The next question is from the line of Achal Kumar from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. I'm so sorry. I have to very quickly. So one, you know, I want to understand about the impact. So you highlighted that you lost 9,000 rooms, but that's all from foreign tourist arrivals. How do you see the domestic? I mean, because everybody's talking about the domestic replace international. So how do you see the domestic demand? And do you see the domestic corporate events are actually increasing them? They are not canceling. So how should we think about that? And you must be talking to your corporates, how do you see that business, you know, so that is the first question. Secondly, on the strategy about the growth, you highlighted that you are expanding, you know, beyond business hotels, so you are expanding luxury, and you said 20%, you have decided to grow 20% at least, or maintain 20% luxury size. But I mean, you know, I think if you see the GCC growth, I mean, a lot of GCC growth is coming tier 2, tier 3 cities, Jaipur, Coimbatore and all. So, is your strategy still remain limited to expansion in these known cities or you are sort of open and then you plan to grow in other cities where you see a lot of business coming through in the GCSEs and even in the leisure. Thanks.

Sorry, just to clarify, we didn't say luxury, we said 20% in the leisure segment.

Sorry, sorry, my bad.

No, I just wanted to clarify that because, you know, that luxury is not something that we want to get to 20% in. In terms of our growth, as I said, our strategy is very well stated. We are not going to mend what is not broken. The strategy is working brilliantly for us. We will go to leisure spaces, deep markets, but we will continue to expand in the key markets just ahead of the infrastructure curve with large big boxes because we know the unit economics on them is brilliant, and therefore, if you see our industry-leading EBITDA margins comes from the fact that these are big boxes with very efficient operations and a brilliant asset management team to back up all of that. So, hence we will continue to grow and continue to grow in a diversified manner, as we have said before. What was your first question, Achal? What was the other question you had? Sorry, it slipped my mind.

Sir, Achal has left the queue. Maybe he'll get back to us later. We'll move on to the next question from the line of Deepak Saha from Aashika Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.

Thanks for the opportunity. Just one question, sir. If you see the last two quarters trend, the divergence between REFPA and room revenue, within this quarter, minus 3% REFPA leading to 4% kind of a room revenue growth. So, under normal course of business, given the last year base was also very low, if you are able to pull off mid-single digit, high-single digit kind of a REFPA growth, can we expect to assume that that can culminate into mid-double digit kind of a room revenue growth?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is the shortest answer I'll give today. Absolutely.

Perfect. Last one, on the lease side, any risk from work from home point of view in terms of incremental signing that is possible? I'm saying on the commercial side, as far as incremental signings are concerned, given the commentary that has come from the senior leadership, I understand long-term we are secure, but in terms of incremental signings on the commercial annuity, do we see any moderation risk on the commercial annuity side?

No, not at all. In fact, if anything, our demand side has gone up and quite significantly. And while at Shalet, we understand the space, the group understands the space even better. And if you see the growth of Mindspace, you'll realize it just continues to grow. The GCC story is, there is a recent article also on Times of India, if you have seen, everything seems to have nearly... It's grown at 30-32% in the last three to four years of the DCC space. So it's a space that's really growing. We don't see any slowing down on that.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhay Khaitan from Access Capital. Please go ahead.

Yeah. Hi. Hi. Thank you for the opportunity. So just one question on the margin side. So even in FY26, we saw that there was some slip in the hospitality EBITDA margin. And going forward. If we are expecting incremental occupancy to come more from domestic versus international, how are we looking at the margin outlook in FY27 and FY28 and what are the strategies that Chalet as a unit can take to increase that?

See, look, if you see historically, our margins have been absolutely at the top end of the industry and it continues to stay there. What we need to realize is that for the city hotels, we are not likely to significantly grow the margin percentage. We are pretty much at a stable point where the flow through is equal to the margin. So you can't grow the margin at that point even mathematically. So they will continue to remain stable and that will be our key challenge and our asset management team's key challenge to keep that margin stable. But on the leisure side, we still have some growth because we are not stabilized on the margins in our leisure portfolio. And we expect that to grow to at least mid-40s, thereby overall continuing to grow the margins of the portfolio. Don't forget, we have a little bit of a scope on the CRE side also, because our margins are at, I think, 83-84% right now. So, there is some growth that we can bring from there. Don't forget that we had also mentioned asset sweating, and asset sweating is very central to how we look at our existing business. We will continue to add new revenue-generating areas where they didn't exist before, and therefore we will continue to see a margin expansion as well as a growth overall on the revenue side.

Thank you.

I think in addition to that, there was also a Bangalore ramp-up. You know, we have added 121 rooms, which also will, you know, kind of impact our margins. And once the complete ramp-up happens, that also will, you know, stabilize our, you know, EBITDA margins.

The next question is from the line of Jinesh Joshi from PL Capital. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, my question is on dial. While you highlighted that this is a one-time proposal for one project, but just wanted to understand this decision a bit better. Basically, this is an airport hotel you have as a branding partner. So that means that the scale-up can be much better. I just wanted to know the thought over here.

Sorry, Jinesh, Akbar, can you repeat your question? We were losing you in between.

Why choose an equity partner in Dial rather than finding the capital via debt because this is the airport hotel occupancies can be very in the first year itself. We wanted to know the reason behind dilution versus debt funding.

No, so this is not a capital decision for us, Jinesh. Let me clarify that. This was not a capital decision. We are trying out a project-level partnership, something that we have not tried before. We are just trying to figure out how this works. You have already seen the strength of our balance sheet. It's not that we are looking or scrolling for capital right now. So it's not a capital decision, just for clarity.

Thank you. We'll take the next question from the line, and this will be the last question for today. Due to paucity of time, Kostub Pavaskar from ICICI Direct. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Congrats for resilient performance. And I will just ask the question which earlier participant was trying to ask on the demand side. Sir, you mentioned in your initial comment that you have witnessed cancellation on the foreign tourist arrival in terms of the recent times. What we are trying to understand is that if this, you know, scenario continues, global uncertainty is continuing, I'm not talking from the quarter one perspective, I'm talking from the entire year perspective. So, everyone might be good for us because the base was low. But if this, you know, uncertainty continues, so from domestic, you know, corporate cancellation point of view, or if there are any cancellations going ahead, since even government is also trying to emphasize more on, you know, online meetings or work from home kind of a scenario, and if corporate tries to reduce on their travel cost going ahead. So, in that context, is there any risk of cancellation from the domestic, you know, corporate travel point of view? And if, you know, this is first part of the question, second part of it is that are we, like, whatever, you know, steps you were talking about or the upside risk we have in terms of the leisure properties or, you know, the rooms coming or occupancies at Bangalore, new rooms getting into, that will mitigate whatever the risk is. Yes, we can talk in a lot.

This is Gaurav. I'm answering this on behalf of the team here. You know, from a perspective of what Shwetan just touched upon, the international traveler, we did have a decline in the numbers that were shared to you, approximately 9,000 in just the month of March. But when we look at the domestic traveler, so to speak, we've had no decline, principally in the entire portfolio. We believe that given that... There is more scope of opportunity available in the portfolio now with the occupancy availability. We'll be able to, you know, use that space available by correcting our segments towards driving the occupancy upwards. When we speak of correcting a segment, it is essentially looking at segments which we otherwise may have restricted given that we had international business coming in, largely like groups.

Thank you, sir. As that was the last question, I now hand the conference back to Mr. Shwetang Singh for closing comments. Thank you, and over to you, sir.

Thank you so much. I understand there was still a long queue of questions, and we missed some of the people. Please feel free to write to Deepak, who heads Mr. Relations for us. We'll be very happy to answer your questions separately. As always, we appreciate your insightful suggestions and queries. We hope we have been able to respond to all your queries. In case you need any further clarification or insights on our business, please contact Deepak once again, and he will be able to help you. Good day, and thank you so much.

Thank you, members of the management. On behalf of Chalet Hotels Limited, that concludes this conference. We thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.