Samhi Hotels Limited (SAMHI) Q1 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q1FR27 Earnings Conference Call of Sami Hotels Limited. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as on the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risk and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. As a reminder, all participant 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 this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your touchstone phone. Please note that this conference has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ashish Chakenwal, MD and CEO of Sami Hotels Limited. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Semi Hotel's quarter one financial year 2027 earnings call. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. I am joined by our CFO, Rajat May, our EVP and Head of Investments, Gyanadas, and Nakul, our EVP of Investments. Our investor relation partners, strategic growth advisors are also on the call. We have uploaded our quarter one financial year 2027 financial results, investor presentation, and the Excel sheet on the exchanges and on the website, and I hope everyone's had a chance to. Go through them. Before I get into specific company-level details, let me spend a moment on the environment we operated in in this quarter, because it speaks directly to why we've built the SAMI we have. We are a firm believer in and investor in the urbanization story of India, and we have deliberately built a portfolio in some of the most dense office markets in the country. That thesis held up well in quarter one. Net office absorption across our core markets was approximately 11 million square feet during the quarter, on top of approximately 58 million square feet for the whole financial year 26, and leasing momentum, especially in global capability centers, remains strong with Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune, together accounting for more than 65% of the quarter leasing activity. On aviation, passenger traffic did dip early in the quarter as the geopolitical situation escalated, and more so because of the limitations of the Gulf carriers, but the later half of the quarter saw a clear recovery, and quarter one F527 passenger traffic came in essentially flat year-on-year for the quarter as a whole, a good illustration of how quickly underlying travel demand in our markets reasserts itself once a disruption passes. Against that backdrop, our own operating metrics were strong. Same-store Refbar grew 9.6% year-on-year to approximately Rs 5,220, with portfolio occupancy at 79.3%, which was up from 74.2% in the year-ago quarter. Domestic travelers now make up 82% of the room nights we sold, up 78% a year ago. This more resilient domestic cohort is precisely what insulated our top line from the disruptions to international rivals that we saw through the quarter. Encouragingly, 36% of the days in the quarter saw occupancy in excess of 90%, which tells us underlying demand compression is intact even with softer international business. Let me now hand over to Rajat to take you to the quarter financial performance in detail, and I'll come back to you to talk through our growth pipeline. Over to you, Rajat.

Thank you, Ashish. Good morning, everybody. Let me start with three items that Bridger reported performance for the quarter to comparable performance as that truly demonstrates the health of the business and gives it clearer guidance on the way forward. Total income for Q1 FY27 was Rs.308.3 crores, which was on a reported basis up 7.3% on a year-on-year basis. However, there is approximately 9.3 crores of one-time other income that was included in our Q1 FY26 base, relating to a subsidy capital restructuring as a part of the GIC transaction. Therefore, on a comparable revenue growth basis, we were up 10.8%. This includes same-store growth of approximately 9.1%, and the balance came from the new opening last year. Similarly, Q1 FY26 days also included approximately Rs. 2.1 crore as a one-time expense related to the GIC transaction, which reduced the reported bid-off for that quarter. Operating expenses in Q1 F526 include an approximate impact of Rs. 9.2 crores from the change in the GST regime from 12% with the input tax credit to 5% without the input tax credit. This impact is in the current year and is not a base period adjustment. Therefore, while we reported that it was lower by 4% on a year-on-year basis, The same on a comparable basis was healthy at about 12.1%. Finance costs for the quarter declined by 25.5% on a year-on-year basis to 37.7 crores, resulting in a PBT of 32.7 crores, up by 26.4% over the same period last year. Net debt as on June 30, 2026 was approximately 1,490 crores. Our net debt to Bidda stood at approximately 3.2x on a trading 12-month basis and approximately 2.4x for operating assets, excluding the capital deployed towards growth. Our effective interest rate is at 7.8%, approximately 300 basis lower than that at the time of our IPO. Our credit rating remains A-plus stable, both by ICRA and CARE, unchanged since our last upgrade during the financial year of 2026. We remain firm on the trajectory outlined last year with the forecast to generate accumulative cash flows of more than 2,000 crores over a period of FY27 to FY31. This enables us to fund our committed growth capital while maintaining a strong balance sheet. However, we have two uncertainties in our business, the external environment and the growth opportunities that may come our way. But as we promised, the balance sheet needs to remain strong irrespective of either the two or both playing out. So it is critical that the board has the flexibility to act in time. And therefore, we have an enabling resolution for a capital raise during this meeting, although the business actually stands very well capitalized as we speak. With that, let me hand over the word back to Ashish.

Thanks, Ajit. So this operating performance that Rajat just spoke about, which is largely anchored around the 9% same-store REFTA growth and also around the same level of total revenue growth for the same-store asset, has remained within our expected long-term revenue growth forecast of 9% to 11%, even with repeated headwinds. This is very reassuring and allows us to focus on the growth ahead. We're excited about the strong growth pipeline we have secured across cities such as Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Noida, and Nabi Mumbai, and with marquee brands such as the W, Westin, and the Marriott. This will deepen our presence in key office and aviation markets and allow us to benefit from the urbanization trends and opportunities that India offers. It's also worth understanding how the portfolio mix matters as much as the growth rate. Last financial year, on a same-store basis, our upper upscale and upscale hotels earned almost four times in revenues what our mid-scale hotels earned on a per-key basis. This is exactly why our portfolio mix matters. Most of the 1,660 rooms across seven new hotels in committed pipeline sit in the upper upscale and upscale segment. Add to that around 400 rooms, 450 rooms that we are rebranding from upper mid-scale to upscale. And our upscale share of revenue moves from approximately 40-41% today to approximately 60% by financial year 2013. The recent GSC changes make the shift even more valuable since it impacts our mid-scale rooms far more than the upscale ones. Put simply, every new upscale key we now add brings in more revenue per key and a better margin than the mid-scale it often replaces or sits along. This gives us an asymmetric growth, a bigger jump in revenue and profit than our room count alone would suggest. However, at the same time, MidScale remains valuable for cyclical resilience, as is evident from its restar growth in 401. Beyond our core business, we continue to support the experiential leisure platform through Rare India. The Rare portfolio now stands at 75 hotels with 1,046 rooms across 15 states. It's a curated collection of heritage palaces, wildlife lodges, and boutique resorts. Rare is an asset-light model. Rare owns the platform, not the underlying hotels, and its economics will come from three sources. The fee income from the business it generates for its hotel partners, additional incentive fee in select hotels, and selective opportunistic investments, one such being an eight-acre estate in Uttarakhand that we have opportunity to acquire for around 12 crores. This was a rare hotel. The owner wanted to dispose as they were leaving the country, and we find such opportunities to be attractive. The entry capital is low to the asset potential, and much of the value creation will come from the rare model itself. So while rare and the broader leisure thesis will use a very small part of capital, we see it having the potential to create a relatively larger value for our shareholders, although it will take some time. Marginal cost to marginal return ratio seems to be attractive, opportunity scalable, and the rare platform gives us a sectoral knowledge and talent pool. In summary, our expectation from the market is modest, 9% to 11%, and we have delivered that for several quarters, despite headwind. Our portfolio growth is promising both in scale and in terms of segments we are growing, allowing us to materially strengthen our core business in urban centers, and we have an opportunity to create totally asymmetrical returns from rare while remaining nimble on capital allocation. Thank you for your time today. We will now open the floor for questions.

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and 1 on the touchstone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use answers while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Karan Khanna from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Two questions from my side, Ashish. Firstly, can you talk a bit more about the Ijmalan estate acquisition in Binsar Al Mora? While the reviews appear quite strong on booking, TripAdvisor, etc., but if I look at the revenue performance for past few years, it's been fairly ordinary. And more importantly, with Rare India, and now Itmanan, You've already deployed 60 crores towards leisure as a segment, and with further expansion at Ritmanan, it appears leisure capital allocation will continue growing in your portfolio. So given that context, in your 2030 outlook, how are you thinking of leisure as a part of your business? And if you can also talk a bit more about opportunities within Rare India that you're currently evaluating.

Thank you, Karan. So, in terms of performance, you're absolutely right. The performance of this hotel took a little bit of a hit in the last year, year and a half, because the owners had moved to Canada. So, since they moved out, of course, the hotel was pretty much in a state of being kept operational, but not really seeing any active marketing. It also had gotten delisted from Rare for a period of time and will now get relisted. So what you see as the near-term performance is not reflective of where this hotel needs to be. You know, the Kumau area, because of Rare, we now get some exceptional data. The Kumau region now has these small, experience-led hotels which drive rates anywhere between 20,000 to 40,000. And we feel with the combination of Rare and potentially outdoor collection of Marriott Bonvoy Right. And the unique asset that Ithman itself is, it should reclaim that price positioning and therefore it will reflect in the financials also. That's part one. Part two in terms of capital allocation. I think, Karan, it's fair to say that we like the rare story as asset light. That's why we invested in it. And to that extent, the incremental capital investment of rare is negligible. You know, whatever we had disclosed is where we stopped. Actually, the total capital investment in rare is around 40 crores, right? 47 crores. And now with rare, with Manan, you know, which is an add-on, it's about 60 crores, right? If you pick a four- or five-year view, it's hard to put a number, but we like to believe that it will remain to be a relatively small portion of a capital allocation, I think in the zip code of 10% plus minus. But, Karan, what is important is we don't need to be apologetic about capital allocation because we think the value some of these assets will create will be far more than the percentage capital allocation they seek from us. And the reason is the underlying thesis that we are now understanding through Rare India that these hotels have an arbitrage where the amount of capital they require and the level of average room rate they produce are totally disconnected. So if you take a core business hotel, there's kind of a correlation between segment cost per square feet and the average room. But the hotels we've seen through Rare India, a large part of rate is realized through experiences and distribution. So even though the capital allocation current will remain really small, we like to believe in its early days that the value it will create for the shareholders will be disproportionate. But I think we need to be clear that the amount of capital they'll suck up today and in the future may not really pass the zip code of around 10-12%.

Sure. And secondly, and lastly, if you look at the RAPFAR performance, it appears ARRs were largely flat on a wire-wide basis. There was two or three percentage point improvement in that. But for the rest of FI27, when you think about growth, how much of that is being pencilled in via ARRs and how much of that will be occupancy-led? And also for July, have you seen a sharp recovery in July or are they similar to what you've seen last quarter?

So 2.1 is how do we see FY27 growth structured in terms of rate versus occupancy? I think, Karan, in the first six months, you'll see occupancy driving the total revenue growth, and occupancy continues to remain extremely, extremely robust. I mean, if you'd asked me five years back, can you underwrite a 79% occupancy for a business hotel portfolio, I myself would have been reluctant, and I'm sure you and I had this conversation sometime back, right? But today, it's easy to underwrite 70s, early 80s occupancy for business hotels. Having said that, don't forget that the domestic share of occupancy has gone from 78-79% to about 82%, but it comes at a certain cost because my international business always came at a premium of 10%, 15%, 20%, depending on the segment you operate in. So as towards H2B rebalance the domestic versus international, that rate goes with automatically come to our portfolio. That's part one. Part two, I will give you the answer, but I'll also caution that one month is never representative of either a quarter or the balance of the year. But July is quite strong. And I won't want to give specific numbers because we've not done that before as a practice to give. But I can assure you that July is trending far ahead of where we ended the previous quarter. And also, we are seeing a growth in rates now, which we had not seen in quarter one. So the trends that we are seeing are quite encouraging. But Karan, I will caution everybody, it's one month of the three months of this quarter, and we still have eight more quarters to go before the end this year.

So, I'll see you here. Come back in the queue for any follow-ups.

Thank you, Kalan.

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

Yes, Jinesh. Yeah. Sir, my question is on rare. I think we have mentioned in the presentation that out of 75 hotels, roughly about 40 hotels have agreed to be a part of the Marriott Outdoor Collection Program. Now, given the parentage, were we expecting the number to be in this trajectory? Also, what could be the reason for not signing to the Marriott program? Because essentially, the hotelier gets the brand right, which helps him boost his occupancy and ARR. So, any specific reason why the sign-up apparently appears to be slightly lower?

So, Jinesh, actually the sign-ups are far ahead of our own expectation when we have done the transaction. And it's nothing to do about them liking or not. It's about the pace. So, a bunch of reasons will relate to this. One is some of those hotels were on other platforms. And, you know, we obviously clearly don't want to interrupt existing contracts that any parties may have. So we're very mindful of that. So there is about 10 or 12 hotels that currently are on other platforms, and they'll make their own decisions to be on Married Bonvoy. And for the balance, I think it's about just getting in touch with the owners, explaining benefit analysis, doing a bit of a property review to understand, you know, what file life safety measures need to be taken. So it's just a time and a process. But I think in terms of the level of... Participation, the level of confirmations that we have received is a lot more encouraging than what we had anticipated originally.

Sure. Just to understand this right, I mean, if a hotelier is on a rare platform, does it imply that he cannot be on any other OTA? Is that understanding correct? No, no. He can't be on OTA.

Jinesh, OTA, of course, is independent. All of our Marriott and Hyatt and IHG hotels are on OTA. Similarly, all rare hotels, including the ones which will go on outdoor collection at their own disposition, can or cannot be on OTS. There's no restriction to that. When I talk about other platforms, I'm talking about platforms like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which are very similar to Bonvoy. So because of it being a legacy company, there are about 10 or 12 hotels which are on these platforms. And I will reiterate, it's not our intent to ever get between contract of two parties. So we'll allow those owners to take their own calls. And we are focusing on the hotels, which are currently unappliated with similar platforms. OTAs, there's no issue.

Understood. One last question from my side, and it pertains to the fundraise. I know this is just an enabling resolution that we have taken. But given the fact that the promoter holding is slightly lower and majority of our inventory edition is backended, and given the free cash generation that we are seeing, which implies limited funding needs in the near term, any specific reason to kind of go ahead and take this resolution of 750 crores?

So, Jinesh, I think like Rajat articulated, there are three or four things we need to be mindful of, you know. Number one is in starting last year with Operation Sindhu, Indigo crisis, Middle East crisis, you know, every quarter we've seen something that would have been termed as Unpleasant would have been termed as unexpected. I think what's very heartening is that SAMI and largely the hotel industry, and we're not alone, has weathered these storms reasonably well on account of very strong domestic demand. But it does give you a sense of alarm about the fact that the world is clearly not normal. So that's part one. Part two, interestingly, sometimes when the world is not going right, is when you get hit with some opportunities, not that we see anything right now in the horizon. You put the two together, and often companies are motivated to let the financial discipline, you know, be diluted. We have that one promise that we will never violate, which is a financial discipline and balance sheet strength. Now, as and when such problems or opportunities arise, Jinesh, we just want the board to be capable to take their decisions in time. And therefore, I would think not just this year, you would see every year we will take an enabling resolution as a practice. Just to provide a professional board with financial flexibility to act in time if there is a need. So that's really the reason, and I think we should be ready that it's not just this year. We will make sure that the company's board has the ability to act in time at all times.

Sure, sir. Thank you so much and all the best. Thank you, Dinesh.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vikas Ahuja from Antics Talk Broken. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Am I order?

Yes, because you are.

Yes. Hi, good morning, and thank you for taking my question. So, my first question is, Ashish, I mean, if I look at the area growth, right, I mean, since we have listed, it's the lowest in last two quarters we have seen. I think last quarter was flat, and this quarter, it's close to 2.6, 2.7. And compared with the early, you know, double-digit clothes we were witnessing, is it primarily, you know, it's because of the West Asia disruption and we have more of a marriage-led inventory. And just to add on, if I look at the occupancy, it's now touching almost 79%. So is it more of a tactical play like we are just trying to because the travel is a little muted, especially in the southern cities, we are just trying to have lower rates and trying to bump up the occupancy.

So Vikas, I think a couple of things. A 79% capacity utilization or occupancy indicates anything but a very strong and resilient demand environment. Okay. So I would actually see comfort in that number, especially for a company like ours, which is today predominantly business hotel. Two, you are absolutely right. The last quarter, the West Asia crisis, which has then led to disruption in international business travel or international inbound travel, is leading to the rate growth being slightly soft. Having said that, I think we've always remained clear that we focus more on total revenue growth because operators will take their own decisions quarter on quarter about yielding the asset, sometimes through occupancy, sometimes through rate. And in terms of total revenue growth and remove all the noise and the clutter of new openings and, you know, one time, the same store is holy grail. The same set of hotels last year versus the same set of hotels this year, the total revenue growth was around 9, 9.5%. And that remains squarely in the zip code of 9 to 11% that we've guided for the long term. I must confess that what we need to deliver our business plan, which is 3,000 crores of free cash, a lot of growth capex, and the revenue growing two and a half times from where they were last year to where they should be in the next four to five years. So from our perspective, the total revenue growth remains pretty much healthy in range that we expect it to. Capacity utilization or occupancies are quite heartening at 79-80%. Yes, there is a short-term dilution in the average rate because of the inbound, but I think, as I said earlier, both when that crisis starts to stabilize, I'm not even using the word crisis gets resolved, because honestly, we've seen the Russia-Ukraine war hasn't resolved. But so long as a crisis stabilizes and the world gets used to it, and we move into H2, I think you'll start seeing some of that growth coming too through rate. And as I was responding to current questions earlier, in July, we've already seen that starting to play out. But again, I will repeat my... We have a caution that one month is not representative of the balance eight months that have to come. But in July, we've seen the total revenue growth split between half rate and half occupancy. So I think because this quarter-on-quarter revenue management, we should remain focused on two or three things. One is total revenue growth, especially same store, and where the margin profile is heading. And I'm sure somebody will, at some point, ask that question, but I will address it, that we also see the margin profile significantly improving, A, because of the GST impact. Two, we had some of the new openings last year in the Holodin Express platform. And C, of course, the fact that an increasing share of upscale will boost our margins because they don't get affected by GST. So those are two or three parameters that we track very closely. But, yeah, we'll keep you updated as we see the rate growth come in H2.

I'm sure that's helpful. Actually, sorry to, you know, ask the question again on this fundraising, but just I'm just trying to understand because I remember in last time this day, we did talk about investment surplus of $1,700 million. I think that time the growth guidance was a little higher and it has come down for all the known reasons. But why, you know, we are talking about equity-led dilution and not taking an enabling resolution for debt instead. Yeah, thank you.

Enabling resolution for almost everything. And I will repeat that it's just enabling resolution to allow the board to act in time. And regards to answer your question. Like Rajat said, we are taking this resolution to respond to what we don't know. If everything goes as per what we think, both on the problems and on the opportunities, then we have a clear path set. But I think we need to be prepared to respond to both problems if we continue to see them or opportunities that we don't know about today. But what I think this management is very clear is not will take a chance on is leading growth or getting into problems without a well-capitalized balance sheet. So, therefore, the board needs to have that ability, and it needs to have that ability every year so that it can act in a timely fashion. COVID has taught us one thing. If you're not prepared, you lose. So, we'll keep the board and the company prepared so that it can spend time, but you're absolutely right. All the numbers that we've shown to you, you know, there are some of parts. They're not by forecast. We have not assumed any new acquisitions to lead up from 1,200 crores to 3,000 crores. So that whole part is available for everybody to see. There is no information asymmetry there. But I think we are just preparing ourselves for what we don't know.

Thanks, Archie. Wish you luck for the next quarter. Thanks.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Shrinjana Mittal from MS Capital. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Am I audible?

Yes, you are.

Yeah, so you mentioned that the rate growth was slower in this quarter, but if I look at segment-wise, I see that upper upscale, the rate growth was slightly softer than mid-scale and what we would usually expect from the segment, right? So, what I'm trying to understand is, is there a pattern that you expect to see that when the overall demand softens, the upper upscale tends to underperform a little bit because there is some sort of downtrading which is happening? Yeah, that is my question.

No, so, okay, so RefPAR, you would see softer in the upscale. Actually, the raw average room rate was in that zip code of 3.5-4% for all the segments. There is no disparity. But what you saw is that the mid-scale outperformed the broader upscale because of the RefPAR growth of 13.7%. That led by a very healthy occupancy level. So if you see, my upper upscale portfolio was at 78.4, whereas the mid-scale portfolio delivered 81.3% occupancy. Also, what we need to bear in mind is last year, same quarter, the occupancy levels for the upper upscale was about 74%, but for the mid-scale, it was 73.8%. So, year on year, that portfolio has made a really good improvement. And actually, you know, I don't recollect if we discussed this in the past, but we did enumerate that for FY27, we have two or three opportunities within our portfolio which will remain outside of our dependence on the market. One was, of course, the broader mid-scale, which we felt had an opportunity to perform better, and we are very happy to report that in the first quarter, it has delivered as we thought it would, and that's why you see it's growing disproportionately. And second, there was a part of our portfolio, right, which we felt had underperformed in FI26. Early indications are that part of the portfolio is performing really, really strong, and that's why we remain fairly bullish that quarter one is only a start, And the early trends that we are seeing for quarter two and beyond are actually far ahead of what we delivered in quarter one.

Understood. No, that's very clear. Just one more question on the GST impact. This quarter, it's a little above 2%. So this is just because of the mix, because the upper upscale mix was a little bit lower and midscale was higher. Is that right? Understanding?

That's right. That's right. So as you get a little bit of a larger number of rooms being sold below seven and a half, what happens is your GST impact enlarges in that quarter. So, you know, typically quarter one, quarter two, you see volume driven growth in any case in the sector, and you will see larger GST impact. Well, from quarter three, interestingly, at least on a YOY basis, the GST impact kind of... You know, equalizes because prior period also will have that. But in terms of margin depression, it's, of course, continuous, but it will be lesser in H2 than in H1.

Great. So it would be closer to 2%.

That's right.

Yeah, understood. Now, thanks for taking my question and all the best.

Thank you so much. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vaibha Mule from Hayatong, India Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for taking my question. Congratulations on a good set of numbers. My first question was on our F&B revenue growth for this quarter. While overall room revenue has grown at a decent pace, F&B growth has actually seen a bit of slowdown with around 4% growth. I wanted to get a bit more color on why was there a slowdown in F&B and what are the initiatives that you are taking to boost the F&B growth? That's my first question.

Yeah, so very good question, Rebhav. You know, what we have seen as a trend is that international travelers tend to be a higher spenders on food and beverage, especially in our upscale segment, right? We clearly have seen the business mix move from almost 78, 79 domestic to 80 to 83% domestic. So that clearly, and a large bulk of that, honestly, I'm talking about portfolio-wide. This data would be even more stark if we were just to restrict ourselves to, you know, upscale, right? Second is we had... We had a renovation in one of our key restaurants in Bangalore, which is now open again. And third, we had some event cancellations on account of the West Asia crisis. Some of them moved to July onwards. Like in high frequency Pune, we had some events in June, which got moved to July and August. So a combination of these three has led to around a 3.5% FMV growth against 9%, 9-10%. Actually, the total room growth is 14%. FNB is muted at 3.7. That's why the blended average comes lower. So as the event thick-faced, you will see that coming back.

All right. Second question, sir, on the GIC investment, you mentioned in the morning that you are evaluating the partnership with GIC for some of the new opportunities where TANI is investing. Can you highlight a bit more about this in terms of which assets are you looking at the GIC and potentially invest incremental capital? And also, if you can highlight. Oh, if any partnership is that you are willing for existing.

Okay, so second is easier. We're not evaluating any partnership or existing assets at this point of time, right? As per the GIC agreement, they have the right to participate with the extent of 35% in new upscale opportunities after we signed the joint venture agreement. The only opportunity that we've signed since our GICJV is really the IKEA, the Inca opportunity in Noida, and we will know in the next due course of time whether they'll come in into that opportunity or not. Other than that, on the prior hotels, clearly there's no discussion at this point of time. For future acquisition opportunities, I'll repeat, you know, the JV has constructed that we will continue to share 65-35, 65 in favor of SAMI, 35 in favor of GIC. Also, what is important and pertinent here is that that joint venture is extremely well-capitalized. So it has the firepower to, you know, grow if we see any opportunities come our way. But no conversation on existing operating assets.

Sir, does new opportunity include your dual-branded development in Navi Mumbai and W Hyderabad? Are these included?

No, no, no, no. Those are opportunities which were seeded prior to the GIC joint venture. So both Navi Mumbai and W Hyderabad are currently and proposed to be 100% by Chani.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Karan Kamdav from Choice International Equity. Please go ahead. Mr. Kamdar, your line has been unmuted. Please go ahead with a question. As there is no response from the current participant, the next question is from the line of Prashant Biyani from Ilara Securities. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, Hyatt Regency, Pune, we were thinking of pre-positioning it as Grand Hyatt. That should happen by when?

No, Prashant, there was a very early discussion, but we are not pursuing that right now. We've already seen significant change in the performance of that hotel. If you see slide number 27 of the presentation, which has been consistent for last several quarters. That was not really the part of the plan. It was a discussion we had about two and a half years back, but since then, we've seen the hotel, you know, grow fairly rapidly without that incremental capex, so we are obviously not going that way.

And, sir, secondly, W Hyderabad and Kotiya and Pune, in which quarter of FY27 can we see opening of these two hotels?

So, W Hyderabad is kind of very exciting, Prashant. We are gunning for that hotel to be fully operational for the second half of FY28. In terms of project progress, we have made progress as scheduled, and which would have led to the opening in, let's say, June or so, but we've always seen surprises come our way in terms of regulatory approvals and licenses, so we'd like to be a little cautious and say that we will make sure that that hotel is available for operations in second half of 2027. No, 28, sorry, FY28, calendar year 27, really. Oh, okay. Second was Cochiat Pune. Cochiat Pune, we have started the back office renovation. We've started doing the MEP renovation. One of the markets which was not impacted significantly by the West Asia crisis was Pune. So, Prashant, we did take a strategic view to not let that inventory go off our books, especially at times when we see that market remaining more resilient to actually some of the other markets we operate in. So, while we are doing the back-end renovation, we have strategically deferred the public area and guest rooms renovations for now, which we now plan to start around April of 2027, and typically, as I said, it will take about five to six months.

Sure.

And similarly, for tribute portfolio, in FY28, it should be starting in second half.

So, you know, the courtyard Pune, the W, Hyderabad, both of these are now geared for the second half, and same for actually Jaipur. And actually, Jaipur, we received most of the drawings and development. Thankfully for Jaipur, it's easier because the period from April onwards does not contribute anything to the revenue in EBITDA. So, we can actually take the bold ball of taking a lot of inventory offline and doing the renovations faster. The same task in Punia is a little bit more difficult because, you know, the revenue spread across all 12 months. Renovation and parts not to impact anything significantly on our revenues, right? So that's obviously the timeline is playing out right now.

Sure, sir. Thank you so much.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Karan Gupta from Asit C. Meta Investment. Please go ahead.

Hi. So my question on the rare bit part, Bye. So, in terms of realization or the revenue part, how it is different in terms of asset life to our, you know, upper upper scale and upper middle scale. Is it something we have the asset life, the operation and maintenance part that you are doing for the layer part? Or how much the, you know, so let's take an example. 100 rupees of billing, how much we will get

in terms of our revenue?

Just trying to understand the model.

Good question. Within the RARE, there will be two revenue recognition models. Majority of will be just the booking revenue, because what's happening is that RARE is entitled to be your commission. Plus, there's really the fee or the commission income that Rare will get on account of the bookings it analyzes through the distribution. So that's straight income that comes to Rare. We are seeing some hotels that there's an opportunity to sign what I would call a more extended agreement, in which case we feel that a higher share of revenue will come through to Rare over and above the booking revenue. So that will mirror more like a pure, for lack of any other word, a franchise, where the revenue share of Rare will be actually higher than just the... Coming through the booking. We actually see increasing opportunities for that as well, which we had not honestly underwritten. So that's really a huge upside for us, because it's not just a direct booking income. We also see some of the fee income come through to Rare in the next few years. So those are the two sorts of income. The hotel revenues don't come to Rare. That remains with the hotel owner. Rare will recognize really the fee income that it generates from these hotels.

Okay. So, share from booking revenues.

That's a commission on the booking, basically. Okay.

Commission on the booking.

That's right.

Okay. Okay. And the repair, any other, you can share.

The bird of rain?

Yeah.

Okay, so Rare, obviously, is a different model. It's a blend of 75 hotels. I think take average there would be the most. It's a mathematically dishonest thing to disclose because the hotels operate from 15,000 rupees average rate to 55, 60, 70,000 rupees average rate. Occupancy levels vary from 25% to 75%. As far as Rare is concerned, it's a booking engine. It's a provider of service. So, really, RefPAR is important, but more important is how much business can we generate through RARE and through our proposed partnership with Marriott. And on that business, RARE gets a commission from the hotel owners, and that is what it recognizes as its own income. So, that will be recognized more as a fee income. In future... We'd like to color any REFPA reporting that we do because of RARE, because honestly, for the future, our core business remains to be the owned hotels that we have in the tier one business destination, and we'd like to report REFPA rate occupancy from that portfolio. Otherwise, I think we'll be sending information to investors. RARE will recognize the commission, and we'll show that as a fee income.

In future, this kind of project-like model, we are also exploring more rooms or more hotels in that particular segment, or it is just kind of the experiment that you are doing?

No, I don't think. I don't think we'll call it an experiment. Anywhere where we deploy capital, it's not an experiment because it's been well-wetted, well-thought-through. Rare, when we actually sign the transaction in March at 66 or 67 hotels, that portfolio is now up to 75 hotels. We continue to see, as we had highlighted during our call on Rare India in March, we continue to see that segment having significant potential to grow in terms of the asset base. Two, we also see that portfolio grow as we bring more new to the owners, and obviously, Rare India charges the commission. So it's a business where we think there are, as I say, the beauty of AssetLite is that the marginal income does not come at necessarily every time a marginal cost. So, we see that as the portfolio grows and the revenue profile of the portfolio grows, the fee income that will accrue to RARE will be, I mean, there is no comparison to the past. It will be substantially different to what it has done in the past.

Okay. Last question on revenue potential or the margin profile to share.

Of? Of RARE. Okay, so the revenue potential we've already given in the March presentation, which we think once stabilized, will be about 100, 120 crores of top line. And we, at this point of time, I think, had highlighted a margin profile around 50, 35% because there's a cost towards merit distribution. So we need to operate this at around, I think the EBITDA contribution from this should be about 35 to 40 crores in the next, I would think, year and a half to year. Because exactly the amount of investment they are making in this portfolio, this portfolio should 100% NOI yield in about a two-year period, and after that, it will start producing returns, you know.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. The next question is from the line of Viraj Mahadevia from MoneyGrow Asset. Please go ahead.

Hi, Ashish, just to carry on on the rare point, given you mentioned that potentially much larger chargeability points with much lower capital employed, at steady state, do you think the rare group could do double the Roki of your consolidated, Sammy, which is roughly around 10%?

So, Raj, not double. It should do probably five times. Because, again, I will highlight that our current business plan is that, you know, we have invested about 47 crores of total investment over a period of time. A bunch of that is going into the company. Some of it is going to the existing shareholders, right? And on a stabilized. Combination of the commissioning firm, combination of the fee income that we've now started seeing opportunities for, which is more than just the commission. Should get this portfolio to 35, 40 crore EBITDA. There is no depreciation here, really. You know, it is all funded to an individual. Effectively, there is marginal, very little depreciation, no finance cost. So the flow through from EBITDA to PBT is pretty much, I would think, 95 percent EBITDA. And therefore, the Rossi's on this should be... I don't think we would have done this for just 10 going to 20. Even our mature owned portfolio today is at about 18-19%. So, an asset-light investment should at least be 2-3%. Otherwise, that distraction is not needed. So, we clearly expect this portfolio to deliver 50-55% return on capital employed, largely because of how it's constructed.

Fantastic. My next question is, Ashish, a little bit of a disconnect that I'm trying to reconcile. Q1 last year to Q1 this year, revenue has grown by 7%, but EBITDA

is actually flat or down by 4%.

Now, that's the biggest driver, effectively, or LBO that you're running within the SAMI group, right? Because despite that, your PBT has grown at 25 plus percent. So, what will cost-collect our EBITDA and really get it in both mode over the next few quarters? If you could just give some clarity around that.

This quarter, we tried kind of giving a bridge on slide number 30. So, quarter 1 FY20, 9 crore of other income, which really... Which was not an operating income, which came to us because of the GIC transaction, where an instrument got revalued. So that's why what you see is that entire 9 crore also got added to the EBITDA of the prior quarter. So that's one distraction that you're seeing about what Rajat said, reported numbers. One is negating the impact of that one time last quarter. Second is, also don't forget, on a YOY basis, there's a GST impact of about 9 crores, right? Which will kind of, at least a YOY comparison will get removed from quarter three onward. Interestingly, when you remove the last year one time revenue recognition, which flew straight to EBITDA, straight to PBT pad, actually, right? And also the 9 crores of GST input tax credit laws. If you were to kind of adjust for that, comparable hotel performance grew at about 11%, and Bitter grew at about 12, 12, 12 and a half percent, right? So, pretty decent performance for that. And quarter two, you will actually see the elimination of the one-time income in the prior period. So it will kind of help our EBITDA growth improve. And quarter three, the GST gets negated. So we'll come back to the revenue and EBITDA numbers looking rational. Right now, they look totally irrational, you know.

Understood. Just sorry, last question, if I may. If you are targeting a 2.4, 2.5 times net debt to EBITDA by year end, I was just doing some maths. It's roughly 550-odd crores of EBITDA versus Q1, we've done about 100 crores. So we have about 150 per quarter to do for the next quarters to land at that sort of outcome. Does that sound achievable and reasonable?

No. We didn't pay 2.5 times by the end of FY27. We think we'll get there by FY28, both because of EBITDA. Actually, largely on account of stable net debt and growth in EBITDA, to be honest with you.

Right. Okay, understood. Thank you. All the best.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Bharat Gianani from MC Research. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you for the opportunity. So, the first question is on the enabling resolution that we have taken, and you highlighted the comments that we are going to, you know, do this every year. So, well, it may be good from, it will give you comfort to be prepared for an acquisition, but then it does not really, you know, go down from an investment standpoint because the overhang of, you know, equity dilution and related impact on the stock price does not go well with the investors if you especially do it every year. So, I mean, just wanted to check that, you know, and secondly, you also have a platform, especially for the upscale hotels for GIC as well. So probably, you know, then if you have the opportunity from the GIC side, and then again, you have an enabling resolution. So it does not give a very, you know, comforting sign to the investor. So just wanted to check on that point. And if at all, if you were to utilize the funds, since it is a mix of equity and debt, tentatively, what would be the equity and the debt proportion if ever you were to utilize the resolution for growth? And the second point is that considering that if we kind of utilize the funds for acquisition, obviously, that's a business model. But comparatively, acquisitions have become costlier since the hotel owners are demanding a lot of money nowadays. So how do you think about the return on capital employed in that case? Thanks.

Okay, well, a lot of questions. Let me try and split them and try and answer. So, first is about the practice and, you know, any potential anxiety or overhangs. I think we have checked, and there are quite a few precedences of companies which operate in a capital-intensive business to keep such provisions and flexibility available to its board members, right? So I think to that extent, we don't see this as anything negative, but only, as I repeat, keep the board and the company fully prepared to act in time if there is such need, right? So that's important, and it's more important for capital-intensive businesses, and more important for companies which are headed into a massive capex cycle, and for companies operating in sectors which tend to respond fairly quickly to global uncertainty. So put all of that together, and I think people should draw comfort from the fact that the management and the board, A, have the ability, and two, have the intent to protect balance sheet over everything else. That's part one. Part two, Bharat, I cannot answer about the mix because, as I said, this is an enabling resolution. We haven't really done any work or met investors or deliberated about all of that. So, you know, as and when the need arises or the board deliberates this, only then we can really comment on size, scale, structure. I think in terms of acquisition opportunities, I'm not worried because we've always said that we're buying hotels which have an operational distress. And operational distress, I kind of acknowledge that tends to be less in up cycles than in down cycles. But nevertheless, we've been able to find opportunities in, at peak of the cycle, at some of our most attractive markets like Bangalore, Whitefield, or Heart of Noida. So if you see in the last three years the sort of opportunities that we've secured for the company, they all follow the theme that we've followed for the last several years. And yet at a time when one would expect the markets to be really at a peak, right? So we are not worried about continuing to see opportunities where our efforts of renovation, rebranding, asset management can create an operational turnaround and create value for our shareholders. So that's the part two of your question. And I think those were the two. Main questions. Apologies if I missed any. Happy to address them.

Thank you. The last question for the test will be from the line of Ashish from Leo Capital. Please go ahead.

Thank you for taking my question. So, I have one major question split into two parts. Can you give an update on the status of the Navi Mumbai projects? Are there any approvals which are awaited that could derail the project at this point? What were the earlier issues with regards to that project and are they fully resolved as of now? That's the first part.

Yeah, sure. So no issues on Navi Mumbai. All the issues that we had reported, I think, two years back are fully resolved. Absolutely no issues. The project is moving in two directions, actually three directions at this point of time. The first direction is statutory approvals, which are moving quite well. We expect to receive the first set in the next few months or so. The second is design development. And I think in the next quarter, we will be able to present a substantial part of that as well. And the third part is really talking to construction firms about the construction technology because, you know, just being a large project, we need to be well prepared about deploying technologies that can help us expedite delivering this very large project. So on all three fronts, we are making really good progress, and I will assure everybody that there are no, quote, unquote, concerns or issues with respect to rules or authorities at this point of time.

Could you give a sense on the timeline for the completion of this project, and by when do you expect the capital investments for this project to begin?

So, Ashish, we were originally planning to be on-site. So, we were expecting to be on-site, hit the ground by end of this fiscal year. So, let's assume to be on the safe side because April 2027 is when we hit the ground. And honestly, I would give ourselves between three years to four years to deliver this hotel given the size and the scale. So that's really the timeline that we see for ourselves, really, and in line with what we have indicated to all of you. So we remain quiet, correct. We remain on time right now. Indications are that we should be hitting the ground by 1st April. I will repeat, unlike many other projects, given the size and scale of this project, the development approach needs to be very different, more scientific. So prep time will be longer, but it will help us really shorten the time on site, which is when majority of the capital is deployed. Third point, which is really important, Ashish, is even though the project will need a large pool of capital, Through FY28, it will be much lesser, because that's going to be largely towards the civil RCC structure. The main part of capital investment in this project will start in FY29, FY30, which is when we head into finishing and engineering installations, right? Through FY28, the investment in this project will remain rather small, and therefore it matches with our current cash flow statements.

Thank you, sir, and best of luck.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the last question for the day. And now I hand over the conference to Mr. Ashish Dakinwell for closing comments.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience and belief in Sammy. I will reiterate the fact that in spite of what one would consider as very unfair, The external environment, both SAMI and the sector we operate in remain fairly resilient. That resilience gives us the confidence to keep pursuing the growth that we've invested in. And with that, we remain fairly excited about the fact that SAMI is destined to at least multiply the revenue by two and a half times, which is the path we've given of going from 1,200 crores to 3,000 crores. And with that, I'd like to thank you all and talk to you again soon.

Thank you. On behalf of Sami Hotels Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your line.