Samhi Hotels Ltd. is well-positioned to achieve high single-digit to early double-digit revenue growth for the next few fiscals given the demand and supply scenario in major cities across India, according to its Chairman and Managing Director Ashish Jakhanwala.
Jakhanwala, who is also the hospitality company's chief executive officer, told NDTV Profit that this growth will be achievable not just in the third and the fourth quarters of the current financial year, but continue in “the next few quarters to the next few fiscals”.
“We think, given the demand and supply dynamics across key Indian cities, maintaining a high single-digit to early double-digit total revenue growth is pretty achievable,” he said.
Samhi Hotels' finance costs for the September quarter reduced to Rs 56.2 crore from Rs 114.6 crore in the year-ago period.
“Finance cost is pretty much stable for the next few quarters because we have rationalised our leverage. Our cost of financing has come down. So, it will remain fairly stable and healthy for the next few quarters,” he said.
The Samhi Hotels CMD explained that while the company's other income keeps changing every quarter, the company was witnessing “very strong revenue growth and strong flow throughs to the bottomline.”
Elaborating, Jakhanwala said, “So what we would see is very strong Ebitda growth with both depreciation and finance costs remaining pretty stable and that will help us deliver higher net margins over the course of the next few quarters.”
The company, which owns Courtyard by Marriott and other luxury hotel brands, turned profitable in the September quarter of the financial year 2024–25, as it posted a profit-after-tax of Rs 12.6 crore compared to a net loss of Rs 88 crore in the year-ago period.
Jakhanwala said that the company turned profitable because of factors such as strong growth in revenue per available room across several cities as well as its acquisition of ACIC Hotels.
“Markets like Bengaluru are seeing net absorption of 14 million square feet and that is a pretty strong number for a year. We have acquired a business which is ACIC, that is contributing a fair bit to the revenue growth you see,” Jakhanwala said.
He added, “We had recapitalised the company through an IPO and that has helped us bring down both our debt and finance cost. In addition to that our cost of financing has been coming down every quarter for the last four quarters.”
Shares of SAMHI Hotels Ltd. dipped 3.9% during intraday trade on Thursday to touch a low of Rs 180.75 apiece on the NSE.
The stock, however, recovered some of the early losses to trade at Rs 182.04 apiece, down 3.18%, on the NSE at 2:56 PM, compared to a 0.78% drop in benchmark Nifty.
The stock closed at Rs 183.52 apiece, down 2.39%, compared to a 0.78% drop in the benchmark Nifty 50.
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