Leela Palaces Hotels & Resorts Limited (THELEELA) Q2 2027 Earnings Call Transcript

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q2 F527 earnings call of Leela Palaces Hotels and Resorts Limited. 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, then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand over the conference call to Mr. Abhishek Agarwal, Senior Vice President, FP&A and Investor Relations at the Leela Palaces Hotels and Resort Limited. Thank you whenever to you, sir.

Thank you, operator. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the earnings call of Leela Palaces Hotels and Resorts Limited for the quarter and half year ended 30th September, 2026. We have published our quarterly results and investor presentation on the stock exchanges earlier today. The same is also available on our investor relations website, www.thelelap.com slash investors. Before we start, a disclaimer. We would like to inform you that the management may make certain comments on this call that one could deem forward-looking statements. Specifically, the financial guidance and pro forma information that we will provide on the call are management estimates based on certain assumptions and have not been subjected to any audit, review or examination procedures. The company does Thank you, everyone, and thank you for joining us.

Q2 FI27 was another quarter of exceptional performance for the list. What we believe is the core of our story. Luxury demand in India is broadening and deepening. Supply remains constrained, and the value in this market accrues to the brands with the most iconic assets and the strongest guest franchise. We delivered 30% rev-par growth, 33% growth in operating revenue, and 36% a second consecutive quarter of 35%. The momentum we built earlier in the year has carried through while we continue to gain market share and sustain industry-leading guest satisfaction. For the first half as a whole, operating revenue grew 30% and operating EBITDA grew 38% with margin expanding by 240%. We are significantly ahead of our guidance in H1 and as we enter H2 which is the strongest, stronger season for the hospitality. The diversity of demand is an important source of resilience for our business. Premiumization was also broad-based across customer segments, clearly highlighted by higher sales of suites and premium room categories, where the suite occupancy rose by over 700 basis points. India is increasingly the venue of choice for global summits and marquee events, and that plays directly to our strengths. During the BRICS summit period, the Leela Palace New Delhi recorded exceptional operating performance as our iconic location and premium positioning allowed us to capture compression demand at premium rates and further strengthen our market leadership. We see India's growing events and MICE calendar as a structural tailwind for rates, and we have a strong lineup of events in New Delhi and Bangalore in the second half. Our pricing power and market leadership. Our net promoter score for the first half stood at an industry leading point ahead of the luxury hospitality average for the Asia-Pacific region. This consistency is what sustains guest loyalty, repeat visitation, and our ability to deal as ranking 30% year-on-year by a 30% area growth to 25,000, rising to over 70%. Achieving this on an already elevated base demonstrates the durability of a pricing power. The quality of this growth matters as much as its scale. Hotels delivered a similar rampart trajectory, grew by more than 30%. Occupancy is also becoming structurally stronger across our city hotels and resorts, with no trade-off against India growth. Our city hotels reached record occupancy at 74% for the first half against 69% last year. Resort occupancy on same-store basis rose to nearly 60%. Alongside a strong weekday corporate base, our city palaces are witnessing increased occupancy over weekends as affluent Indian travelers choose vacations, clothes and resort fraud. We still have meaningful occupancy headroom across the portfolio. The ability to be hospitality market delivered a healthy 13 driven by a superior luxury positioning, strong pricing power, and continued market gains across key destinations. As a result, our REVPAR index expanded to 1.46X. Leela business models is the diversity of our revenue streams. Half of our revenue, 52% for the first half, 1% revenue growth, reflecting sustained traction across restaurants, bars, banqueting, and experiential dining offerings. We have launched eight FNB venues over the past last year. As a case study, a FNB outlet delivering a botanical dining experience was launched in May 26th. Early performance has exceeded expectations with more than 90% of the covers coming from non-resident guests, which validates our strategy of creating differentiated luxury experiences and creating a funnel for the core ecosystem through the non-room businesses as well. As we manage management fees, we have un-utilized Julian House in Q1. Together, these initiatives have unlocked new demand segments, strengthened non-room revenues, facilities in Bengaluru, and on renewable energy initiatives in Chennai and Coorg. These projects will deepen customer engagement, unlock incremental revenue from our existing assets. Our development pipeline remains a significant driver of future growth, and we continue to scout for opportunities across both owned and managed assets, both Greenfield and Brownfield. We remain on track for our F5. The Leela Jaisalmer, a luxury desert resort and spa, and the Leela Luxury Residences in Mumbai that marks a new business vertical for us are both in pre-opening phase with teams on board. At the Leelakur Forest Century, our 71-key-owned resort rebranded on 8th of July, the guest response has been very encouraging, with market-leading ADR, excellent guest satisfaction scores. As we continue to expand our portfolio, talent development remains a strategic priority. We continue to deepen our partnerships with leading global educational and training institutions to build a future ready talent pipeline. The Leela Center of Excellence has been in 100 man hours of training and continues to strengthen. Our development pipeline is progressing well, and several new growth platforms are beginning to scale. With that, I will hand over to Ravi to discuss the financial performance in greater detail.

Thank you, Anurag. Good evening, everyone. Let me take you through our financial performance of the quarter and half year index, 30th September 2026. In quarter to FY27, operating revenue increased by 33% year on year to 4,190 million with every revenue stream growing by more than 20%. Room revenue grew 39% to 2,041 million driven by the area and occupancy gain and contribution from the court. F&B revenue grew 21% to $1,456 million. Management fees grew 76% to $289 million. And other operations services revenue, which include wellness, retail, club membership, and transport, grew 25% to $333 million. Operating EBITDA increased 36% to 1877 million. This translates into an operating EBITDA margin of 46%, a 118 basis point improvement over the previous year. Supported by operating leverage, pricing discipline, and a continued focus on cost efficiency. Profit after tax for the quarter increased 27% year-on-year to $946 million, supported by a strong operating performance across the business. In terms of H1, FI27, it was a very strong delivery with operating revenue growing 30%, operating EBITDA by 38%, FAT also grew by 72% to $1433 million. We continue to make progress in driving direct booking for H1FI27, a contribution to the Leela brand website, to room revenue rose to 15.1% from 10.5% last year and from 5.5% two years ago. This reduces our dependencies on the higher cost third-party channels and improve distribution economics while enhancing guest engagement. In terms of finance cost, it was broadly stable to $384 million for the quarter. For the first half, finance cost fell 37% to $777 million, reflecting the debt reduction through the IPO. Depreciation increased 24% to $336 million on account of the addition of goods and our investment in value drivers. Our share of loss from joint ventures is primarily attributable to our 25% stake in the Dubai Palm Jumeirah Hotel and has improved versus the last quarter. The asset is operating at high occupancy through local staycations though areas are lagging given lower international tourism demand. We continue to monitor the on-ground situation and our plans and timelines for the asset have not changed. Tax tax rate was lower at 158 million following the recognition of deferred tax tax rate for CUR. Pursuant to this, the tax rate for H1 was 16% of the PVT prior to accounting for the share of profit from joint ventures. We anticipate an effective tax rate to be in 20s in FY27. Our balance sheet remains exceptionally strong and growth-ready. Our debt has a long-dated maturity profile for more than 10 years, and our double-age labor This gives us ample capacity to pursue attractive growth opportunities while maintaining balance sheet discipline. Additionally, our borrowing costs have reduced by a further 30 basis points from mid-October as we have actively renegotiated with our lenders, which provides a shift from potential transmission of policy rate high. For the Mumbai BKC project, we would like to update that the lease deed in respect of the land was executed in September 2026 with MMRDA. To recap, the mixed-use project is planned as a 250-key Lila Palace Hotel and a 700-key square feet office with Lila and Brookfield owning 50% share each in the JV. To progress further and get the benefits of an existing government scheme, we will now look to buy the entire FSI required for the project. Since this is a material transaction with a related party, with the JV entity, Leela will shortly reach out to the shareholders for an approval of investment. Our long-term plan remains the same as to have previously. We intend to eventually divest our stake in our office portion and keep our equity versus stake in the hotel subject to regulatory shareholders and other approvals. To summarize, with momentum sustained across the first half, a diversified revenue base, a strong balance sheet, and an expanding pipeline, we remain confident in our ability to drive industry-leading growth. On behalf of the management team, I would like to thank our associates, guests, partners, and investors for their continued support.

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press start and 1 on their touchtone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press start and 2. Participants are requested to use handsets 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, team. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on yet another quarter of FR outperformance. My first question to you, Anurag. In a recent podcast with Anant at Bridge, you spoke about how a lot more needs to be done towards the incredible India campaign, and without this, recovery on the FIT front looks difficult. Given this, how should one think about sustainability of the Rappar outperformance that you've witnessed over the past few quarters? And at what point would you like to prioritize occupancies over ARR growth? And as a follow-up, in the same podcast, you spoke about the GCC boom and what that could eventually mean for branded residences. So how are you thinking about this opportunity beyond Mumbai in markets such as Bangalore, Chennai, and perhaps even Hyderabad?

Thank you, Karan. And this is the third strength. The compression events that happen every year, every year there's a major event happening, and Leela is the best position and the best poise to take advantage of this compression. If you go back to G20 in FY24, India Energy Week in FY25, and the AI Impact Summit in FY26, all of them attracted premium travel to the country and to New Delhi and Bangalore. And we expect that these kind of opportunities will keep coming year on year, especially because of Bharat Mandapam and Yashav Bhumi. So, it is not an exceptional or an outlier kind of an upstick. It is a structural advantage that we have created in our ecosystem order year on year. International business, there was a lot of international business, about 50-50 kind of a mix of international to India. So all of this gives us a runway to continue growing on our ADR and RFR in the future quarters and the balance years as well. Now, coming to your question on Dubai. Now, on Dubai and the GCC market, whilst, of course, we all understand what's going on in the geopolitical world and the situation is very hard for anyone to comment and be intrigued upon, What we have seen in the asset that we own as 25%, we have seen the occupancy returning while the ADRs are fully not coming. You know, the hotel was operationally break-even even in Q2, and the interest and on-the-ground situation has not got fully resolved, but there was an improvement in occupancy, and the ADR level was low because the international demand is not there. But when it comes to the residences, the business plan that we have submitted, And the guidance that we have given, it seems very much on track. We have seen the demand on the Dubai residences remains intact. If you look at the numbers, in the last few months, there have been more than 8, 260 or 270 high-value residential transactions. And in the Palm Jumeirah, that's a great iconic location. And in our business plan, we have factored in a two to three year for the sale of residences, and there has been no change in that business plan. You know, while…

Sure. So, Dubai was actually one of my other questions, but thanks for this. Just on, you know, the Lira residences in Mumbai, what's the outlook here in terms of branded residences? And, you know, generally when you think about markets like Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, are these markets also under, you know, considerations for potentially entering the branded residences space as well? That was the other question that I had.

So, the Lila Mumbai residences are very much on track. We have the opening teams of residents. That's going to be really a new line of business for us. And yes, with the success of Lila Luxury Residences in Mumbai, we definitely believe that this model can be scaled up in other high values.

And then last question for Ravi. You know, you spoke about BKC, given that the least premiums have been paid to the authorities. So, is there a chance that the hotel could actually get commissioned before CY30, or do you think that the CY30 number is still on track?

So, you know, we have paid the land premium, and what I have spoken in the script was that we are looking for shareholders' approval for getting incremental, you know, funding fusion for buying the FSI, but we are on track in terms of the design, in terms of the pre-construction work, and CY30, you know, timelines are realistic, Karan.

Sure. Great. Thank you. I'll come back and thank you for any follow. Thank you and all the best.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Deepak Saha from Ashika Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.

Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations on the number again. Just a couple of questions. First on the management piece side. As in opening remarks also, Ravisa highlighted that the share is going up almost from 5% of revenue to 7%. Just trying to understand that trajectory sustains in terms of higher mix from management piece. And in terms of EBITDA contribution from management fees, is it fair to assume that if it's a 7% in terms of revenues and in terms of EBITDA, it would be mixed, early double-digit to make double-digit kind of a number? Just because it was part of the question.

So, thanks, Zipa, for the question. The HMF fees grew 76% by-oh-y to $289 million in quarter to FY27. The growth is in line with the growth in quarter 4, FY26 and quarter 1, FY27. Growth is led by the ramp-up of the managed properties, including higher fees in some of the contracts linked to performance and past key money investment. While quarter-to-quarter growth rates may vary, we remain confident about the trajectory of the fee income, given the expanded management portfolio, upcoming openings in India and internationally.

And on the EBITDA contribution from management fees, will it be closer to say double the revenue?

So, yeah. So, for any new managed opening, if you get a man-made fee, it flows down to 85% to 90% into Zahibita. Got it.

Got it. The second question is on the staff cost side. Sequentially, there is some movement. So, you can just throw some color on the breakup of the staff cost, anything one-off or anything that you'd like to highlight.

So, yeah. So, from this quarter onwards, we also expensed the ESOP cost into the payroll, and also we had some additional headcounts we added for taking care of the value drivers that we had, you know, started operating the R-Clubs, the Zulian House. So, because there were increased in the headcounts, the payroll cost increased, and including the ESOP expense, if we exclude all that, we'll be in around 10%, 10% to 11% for each one.

Okay, then if you just exclude the ESOP cost, then it would be, I mean, still EBITDA growth would be a 40% plus kind of a number, excluding the ESOP cost?

Excluding the ESOP cost, the EBITDA margin would be even better, the flow-through, excluding ESOP, and if it's true, because GORG is also, you know, stabilizing, and it's not giving the EBITDA number percentage as what Jaipur, therefore, because in the stabilization stage, just one quarter. We would be doing a flow-through of around 60%.

Okay, fine. Got it. That's all, Ghanu. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Binesh Singh from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hi, team. Thanks for the opportunity. Congratulations on both set of numbers.

Hi, Binesh. Sorry, can you just increase the volume? We can't hear you.

Yeah. Hi, team. I hope this is better. My question is on Q3 and H2. Could you share some outlook on how Q3 is trending? Also, earlier we talked about, you know, mid to high teens, a bit of growth for FY27. We've had a very strong H1, almost 38% growth. So are we looking to revise the guidance or any thoughts on that? So these, thanks.

So, Dine, I think we are trending very well and very strongly on both Qs that comes in H2. This is also the quarter where more international conferencing, international leisure would typically come in. It is also the quarters of celebration, wedding, and this year, because of the global situation, we expect that the internal domestic disclosing for the year, and we definitely stay true on the guidance, and yes, H1 has been far stronger than the guidance, and we expect the trends to continue, but definitely mid to high teens for the balance of the year is something that we are...

Thanks, Indra. Secondly, just on the earlier question on the ESOP cost, so that contribution for the quarter would be around 8 crores or so. Will that be a fair estimate, somewhere in the range of 5, 6 to 8 crores?

It would be a little lower than that, Vinay, but we don't give exact numbers, you know, and we can connect separately, yeah.

Okay, team, okay, team. And lastly, just outside of Delhi, because it would have been a stellar quarter for Delhi, how did our other markets like Bangalore and Chennai did in the city hotels?

All our hotels, Vinoy has done extremely well. Like, as I mentioned earlier in my opening commentary, that has been very broad-based. Our city hotels, if you look at divide between city and resort, if you see our city hotels have grown by 26%, all our resorts have grown by 18%. At an individual asset level, Bangalore, Chennai, Jaipur, Udaipur, all of them have done high double-digit growth.

Great, great. Thanks, team.

Next question is from the line of Prateek Kumar from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi, good evening. Congratulations.

I have a few questions. Firstly, the presentation mentions that acquisition and HMAP opportunities are being evaluated. Given the F530 EBITDA expiration of 2,000 quotes odd, do you have an internal target for token key for F530 and The question is on, again, starting on the cost here, and let me grow to 30 to 33%. Last quarter, particularly Q1, we saw this margin expansion. I know you mentioned about poor-related cost and we saw cost which has impacted the portfolio. Possibly, can you quantify, like, additionally quantify, like, impacts on cost, maybe, line by line?

So, Prateek, I'll tell you, the main, the two only reasons where the cost went up was a little of the payroll that I explained, which was related to hiring a new headcount for the value drivers plus the ESOP expense. Other than, you know, the other reason was Korg, which is under ramp-up, while the revenue gets added to the base, it does not contribute as meaningful to the EBITDA yet. Further, you know, as I spoke, we started recording ESOP expense from this quarter, which is a part of employee expense, and you see the spike in the payroll cost. If we adjust these just two impacts, our growth will be close to 60, which is industry leading in our growth boom margin. We remain focused on improving the operating margin and maximizing profitability.

Sure. Thank you. Our question is on your talk about the buying out FSI for Mumbai project. So there have been some changes versus when the project was announced and the midway we again changed And then now, again, we are changing in terms of the way we are moving forward with this project. So, 800 crores CAPEX, is there any review on that CAPEX number for that project from your side?

There is no change in the overall, you know, the CAPEX cost as of now. You know, the 800 crores of our committed CAPEX remain the same. The 400 crores of equity and 400 crores of debt, so that remains the same. Only right now, you know, what we had actually communicated to the state that this is a mixed-use project with 250 rooms, Lila Palace has 700 square feet of office space, we have 50-50% owners with Brookfield, so our funding as of now is 50-50, but we will go to the schedulers when we do the, when we want to invest our office stake and get into the 50% stake in the office, because that's our expertise and we want it to be in the hotel space as well, in order to have a drag on the balance sheet. But since we are 50% owners, obviously, we'll contribute in buying the FSI with our share.

But doesn't that take your 2P

capital commitment to over 800 crores in this project from the dealer's side?

It will take because as of now, we are 50-50% owners for the entire project. It will be too tough when the de-merger proposal goes to the shareholders.

Sure, I'll take it off then. Thank you. Thank you.

Next question is from the line of Vikas Ahuja from Antic Stock Broking Limited. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi.

Thank you for the opportunity and congrats on reporting such a strong area growth. My first question is, how is Q3 outlook looking against the tough days? Last year, Q3 left par was 20% area, was almost 18%. Looking at maybe, you know, Q3 booking and pricing, especially if for November and December, any color around that would be great. And second, I'm just taking a shot at this question. I'm not sure if it's possible, but out of this 30% ADA growth, which we have reported, how much of it has come from BRICS and other events and how much is more like light to light? I mean, what it would have been without the event, especially for the city, which reported almost 36% in Q2. Thank you.

Yeah, no, thank you. I think I'll take the second part of the question first before I come to Q3. Look, BRICS is like an event, a great event that increased the demand across all hotels in the city of New Delhi. And Leela, as a market leader, we have always been able to exercise our highest pricing power And really yield high on these compression events and have a larger share and optimize on this kind of a demand. So, it did have an impact overall on the New Delhi asset. But even if I take the BRICS impact out, which was only on one particular asset, the overall growth for the portfolio would have been in high teens on ADR. Please understand, we have been structurally the location of our assets, the iconic nature, the supply constraint, the quality of service and experience that we provide of the brand. All of these also presents an opportunity for us to keep growing ADR year-on-year, quarter-on-quarter. Even if you look at the calendars of our global quality convention places, Sir, one last quick question.

On this corporate rate negotiation for CY27, which is underway, any early callers that you can provide? That would be all. Thank you.

So every year, we have been going in and actually circling up with almost a mid to high double-digit growth in terms of a corporate rate plan. The second shift that we started doing a couple of years back, we pivoted almost 60 to 70% of our static rates on corporate to dynamic rates. And we also over-index on the GDS bookings directly to ensure that we got the maximum bookings through these channels at the highest yielding cost. So our growth rate is, we are pitching for mid to high double-digit growth rates in terms of our house rates. But the negotiations are on. As you know, the RFP season starts in the month of July, which started like a couple of months back this year and will continue towards the end of this year. But one can definitely expect a mid-to-high double-digit growth in terms of corporate.

Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all the participants in the conference, kindly limit your questions to two per participant. Should you have a follow-up question, please rejoin the queue. We will take our next question from the line of Murataza from Kotick Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you, sir, for taking my questions. Two questions. One on Korg. What would be the revenue contribution for Korg during the quarter? And it appears like, you know, since Korg is still in the ramp-up phase, you don't have a significant EBITDA, but if you could give us a number on that EBITDA contribution also. And on BKC, you know, you talked about looking to divest the office stake, which is a plan that you've laid out. But is there any consideration in mind for that? Or it's, you know, given it's just too early stage a project, you know, is there any consideration for that 50% stake? Or would it just be to the extent of the premium paid for the leasing?

Korgan and Ravi can chime in for the BKC project. So, look, as far as Turkey is concerned, the ADR has doubled over what it used to operate when it was not branded as the Leela. We branded the asset towards the middle of July. It's been just like less than 65 days since we branded the asset as the Leela. It has delivered a very strong improvement in operating performance with ADR doubling versus the pre-acquisition period. The guest experience and integration with the sales channels, loyalty ecosystem and revenue management has been completed. If you look at the asset, look at the reviews and the experiences, it is literally a 10 on 10. We have property, as I think we mentioned last time, in terms at a EBITDA level, and we are focused on stabilizing the asset, and then thereby...

That question, Murtaza on the BKC, just repeat once more.

You know, you talked about the divestment of 50% office stake. Now, while that plan has It's been previously told. Is there any consideration that would come through, or it would just be the premium date?

You know, that's too early. Right now, it will be on the basis, basically going to the board and also the conflict committee. And once it, you know, it gets finalized, obviously, we'll come back to you on this answer.

Sure. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Karan Kamdar from Choice Institutional Equities. Please go ahead.

Well, congrats, sir, on a very good side of numbers, especially on the ARR side. That is exactly where my question is also. Where do you expect this ADRs to end at for the full year? And given that these have been rising on quite a high base, do you see any demand shortfall coming in because of high ARRs?

If I just talk about even what we call as high ARRs and ADRs in India are significantly lower than anywhere else, anywhere even in the nearby markets. If you look at Bali, you look at Dubai, even Dubai now, not at the current state, but take it Dubai when it was like a stable market or Singapore or Thailand. So I don't think anywhere in India, on the luxury side, given the asset qualities that we have, the size of a room, the real estate that we deploy, and most important, the service that we provide, we are anyway quick, you know, have come close to plateauing or reaching a ceiling when it comes to average daily rates. I really believe that we have a very strong runway to grow, keep growing on the average trading side. It's just that, let's put it this way, that we have become more mindful now in terms of how to price ourselves. And we have just started. I would like to even be optimistic to the extent of saying that the next two decades, you know, are there in terms of growth for us, in terms of both value creation, in terms of average rate. And coming to the demand, look, India is significantly underserved when it comes to international inbound. Even today, our Indian inbound is still not reached the pre-COVID levels. And today, there are much smaller countries, rather cities, which are two times the inbound on the leisure side than just India as a country. So there's a lot of work happening there. And this is again, you know, a demand side which has not been optimized at all. There's a lot of focus that is happening both at the government level as well as asset and the company level, where there's a lot of focus in terms of creating this kind of a demand. And the domestic market is so strong in India. We have grown, we have been growing like almost 20 to 30 percent. If you see, last quarter we grew 30 percent on the domestic market. The domestic market has got the propensity to travel and pay for these experiences.

So Sir, on the Dubai side, we posted a better loss, for lack of a better word, this quarter. When do we see break-even coming in, and what is the timeline for that?

So, I tell you, Dubai as a property is doing a break-even on the EBITDA. Even they did break-even EBITDA in the quarter one, and it was positive EBITDA in this quarter. Only the interest in depreciation is a drag on their fat, and that's impacting our share of fat also because of 25% ownership. And obviously, the performance is improving quarter by quarter. We see the occupancy ramping up, and the rate also improving in the next two quarters.

Can you put a number on the EBITDA for the Dubai JV?

Look, Dubai JV, Dubai is being managed right away by Sokutel by third-party operators. So, we don't want to actually spell out the EBITDA unit by a third-party operator.

Oh, great. Thank you, sir. Yeah. Sorry, please go ahead.

I said this hotel is being operated by sub-hotel. Only next year, we will get the handover of the hotel, take 12 months for renovation, and once we brand the hotel, then we will have full visibility on the EBITDA and the other numbers, which we can communicate.

Got it. So, 28 would be non-operational, right? Is that correct? We are looking

at taking the hotel under renovation in early 27, I would say probably in early FY28, to be precise, like April or so is when we should start the renovating hotel and finish the renovation within a year.

Got it. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Vibha Mule from Hightong India Securities. Please go ahead.

Hi, Anurag sir and Ravi sir. Congratulations on a phenomenal set of numbers for people. My first question was on our execution capability. We have seen a disproportionate benefit coming in from Leela Delhi because of break summit. We have generated a very strong pre, during and after summit demand for Delhi. So what has we done differently compared to some of the other players which are operating and assetting the same vicinity? And secondly, similarly on the resort side, you mentioned that Jaipur has been operating above 60% occupancy in a leaner period of H1, and given Jaipur is a very cyclical market, occupancy is extending towards higher levels even in a lean period. So what different are we doing compared to the rest of the players in such markets? Can you share some light on that?

Sure. So, as far as your absence, this is a great question. The Leela Palace, New Delhi, luxury market, all the hotels had the opportunity. But we were extremely well-poised and we exercised the revenue management and asset management capabilities, the location and the nature and the quality of our assets and the investments that we have made on food and beverage experiences and programming to be able to secure four smaller heads of state delegations rather than large delegations. What it allowed us to do was to have outstanding market share and outside more than fair share and market leadership in terms of rate when it comes to just this particular delegation. Without giving you specifics, I can tell you we were significantly higher than every other brand that operates in the same micro market in terms of the yielding from this one particular BRICS event. And that has been a trend across the board, across all the associations, events that have happened. Coming to a resort, special offers, and we were the first in many ways to roll out our all-inclusive offers, And which is backed by experiences and programming and elements of wellness so that when a family and a multi-generational travels, they visit our resort, they get to experience the entire ecosystem of luxury that we have created. There was a lot of focus on weekend business in our city hotels and growing our revenue through staycations in our city hotels. And if you notice, in Q2, our weekend revenues have grown by over 20%. We have also put in some dollars in terms of investment into the markets, which are international source markets for us, for Leela.

Understood, sir. Just a small follow-up on our resorts. We have already surpassed 60% occupancy for Jayatour in X1. So, what will be the stabilized occupancy you expect for 27 and going forward as well, what will be the target occupancy And second question on our overall project timeline. We have two owned assets coming up in CY27 and three assets in CY28. So can you share the exact quarter in which these assets are likely to become operational and is there any risk of any delays in the operation?

First, in terms of the resorts occupancy, you know, our resorts are operating, including in the mid-50s, and we expect that we go closer to 60, and there's a runway for all our resorts to go to late 60s in the next few years because of the programming and in terms of the packages that we deliver at our resorts. That is also the resort occupancy. The other two hotels The hotel that we are looking to open this year, end of this year, early next year, is Jaitan Meir and Leela Regences. So, we are on track opening this hotel later this year or earlier next year, and at 528, 27, these two hotels will open.

From CY27 perspective, on the own timeline.

Say that, repeat that.

So, I was asking regarding our own projects, mainly the Ranthambur, Ayodhya.

Yeah, so I'll give you a timeline calendar from now. As I mentioned earlier, Jason Mayer and the Leela Luxury Residences, we are opening in this financial year. Sorry, Jason Mayer and the Leela Luxury Residences. Towards the end of, I would say, Srinagar and Bandargarh would open toward the end of calendar year 27. We are in advanced stages with mock-up rooms and the civil work is progressing on fast track and in Vandalkar, the villa construction is advancing steadily and structural work is going on schedule. And then in 28th is a very big year where we have almost four openings in that particular year. We are including Agra, Ayodhya, Rantambore and Sikkim. Filing work has been coming right now.

Perfect, sir. This is very helpful. All the best for the next quarter.

Thank you. Next question is from the line of Achal Kumar from HSBC. Please go ahead.

Yeah, hi. Thanks for taking my question. First of all, Anurag, going back to the question around the second half, and I guess you mentioned that you're still tracking high-team growth, and that implies only about 8% to 10% of the growth in the second half. So, I mean, is it like because of the high base or what are you expecting? What are you building in second half to make you believe that you are still tracking only high teens growth? Can you please elaborate on that and give us a bit of a color in terms of what exactly you need to sort of surpass that guidance?

So, you know, we have high teens is for H2. The number that I'm talking about is high teens growth is specifically for H2. Okay. We have given guidance of double-digit REFPA growth and mid-teens EBITDA growth in FY27. In H1, as you know, we have already significantly overachieved relative to that run rate. But we maintain a guided run rate for H2, where the base is also high. You are right, the base is also high. Even last year, we had a great, but on that base, so obviously this implies that we will have a...

So your original guidance was mid-teens growth in FY27 EBITDA, and that should be significantly higher than that, right?

That's right.

Okay, perfect. That makes sense. Now, second question about your comments about the 700-bit increase in a street occupancy. So, can you please clarify as in, you know, which market is it? Is it across India? You know, how much is contributed by Delhi? And what kind of demand broke this occupancy? Was it domestic travelers or inbound international tourism? You know, what kind of, if you feel a bit of a color in terms of that, you know, I just want to understand whether domestic people are really spending a lot, or is it like more inbound international, and which market is it? Thanks.

So this is across all our own assets and across all markets. So this is defined by international business.

Right. And then when you say 700-bit increase in occupancy, so what kind of occupancy now you are achieving in this street business?

I would say mid-40s.

Mid-40s. Okay, fine.

This is a paid occupancy. Of course, for the highest tier of loyalty guests and all of that, we obviously are committed to give them as a part of their experience certain upgrades. I'm not taking that into account. If you take the blended occupancy, it is almost late 60s. But I'm talking about the ones who deliberately choose and pay and stay at the suite.

Okay, perfect. And then the last question I have, so you just said that you are sort of getting... It's a very heavy international tourism market. So, which are the markets where you think you're still missing and you want to be in there, those markets? And what are the plans? Do you have any plans?

As in where we should have assets and hotels? Is that the question?

Exactly. Exactly. Especially for the international business.

Absolutely. So, you're right. Since we're already present in major Indian cities, all the business cities, But we would definitely, at the right time, for the right asset quality and the right agreement, with the right returns, we would want to be present, coming up in all the major destinations, but we would definitely want to be there in Goa, and plus look at other emerging destinations, which we believe have a very high...

Okay, perfect. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we request to kindly restrict yourselves to one question only. Next question is from the line of Akash Gupta from Nomura.

Thank you for taking my question. And congrats on a great set of numbers. On our own hotel portfolio, so I wanted to understand, does Leela do its own capex in the sense that are we doing our own hotels? Or are we actually giving it to some contractor and he's doing everything? In which case, how are we doing the quality control and how much say we have on the planning side? So that's my one question.

So, Leela has a very, we have built a very strong development ecosystem, both at the corporate level and at the site level. So, we have our own technical services, which includes our in-house architects, designers, project execution, cost consultants, and quality controllers. But at the same time, we work with top costing side on the quality assurance side, as well as, you know, MEP and other consultants, the top tier guys. So, the CapEx, which is under deployment, in most cases, we are doing it ourselves. For example, in Srinagar, it's being done end-to-end by the Leela team. In Pandavgarh and Ranthambore, it is being executed by a JV partner, but on Leela quality controls, Leela brand standards, with all the touch points and all the control points residing within Leela. There's checkers of the whole. Why will be done through the group feature?

Understood. And if I may add just one question.

I'm so sorry to interrupt, Mr. Gupta. One question at a time, please.

Okay, fine, Mr. Thank you.

We will take our next question from the line of Sarap Gilda from JM Financial. Please go ahead.

Yes, I'm audible.

You are audible.

Yes, thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on the great set of numbers. I just have two small questions. First is, if you can highlight the pending capex for the own pipeline that we have laid out,

So, I'll tell you the capex for our 5 contracted pipeline which is Agra, Shinagar, Ayurthaya, Rantam, Parbantavkar, is around 1432 crores. We have spent around 150 crores, by end of this year we will be spending around 450 crores, next year we are looking at spending around 600 crores and subsequent to the balance capex.

Okay, got it clear. And lastly, on the F&B part, if you can break down, how much was the growth in F&B driven by the MICE segment?

If I tell you about the outlet, you know, the outlet revenue mix was around 56% and the banquet mix was around 44%.

Sorry, I missed the last part.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, due to time constraint, we will take that as the last question for today. The Investor Relations team at Leela remains available for any more clarification. I now hand it back to the management for closing comments.

Thank you, operator. Thank you, everyone. We can now close the call.

Thank you very much. On behalf of Leela Palaces Hotels and Resorts Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us today, and you may now disconnect your lines.