Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Chalet Hotels Limited Q4 FY 2024 Earnings Conference Call. We have with us today Mr. Sanjay Sethi, CEO and MD, and Mr. Milind Wadekar, CFO. 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. Please note this conference call may contain forward-looking statements about the company, which are based on the beliefs, opinions, and expectations of the company as of the date of this call. These statements are not the guarantees of future performance and involve risk and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded.
I now hand the conference over to Mr. Sanjay Sethi, MD and CEO, Chalet Hotels Limited. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you so much. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for joining us for the call today. To begin with, Milind and I will share some highlights for the quarter and the year. We then look forward to opening the forum for questions and answers. The Indian hospitality sector continues to experience strong tailwinds. The average room rates have surged to levels not seen in a decade, and occupancy remains robust. Furthermore, air traffic in the country has reached unprecedented heights, indicating a growing demand for travel. This presents a golden opportunity for the industry to leverage and reposition India's play in the global tourism market. Despite its vast potential, the hospitality sector in India is still relatively underserved, offering ample room for growth. Chalet is in a prime position to seize these opportunities and further establish a foothold in the market.
I'm happy to report that Chalet Hotels has delivered some of its best quarters in FY 2024 on the back of strong business performance, strategic acquisitions, and inventory additions. The fourth quarter marked yet another best-ever performance, achieving record high ADRs, revenue, EBITDA, and PAT. The presentation for Q4 has been made available on the exchanges on our website for your reference. This year, we acquired the Courtyard by Marriott Aravali Resort in Aravali for an enterprise value of INR 315 crores. This property features 158 rooms and is spread across 14 acres of picturesque landscapes. The property has six acres of undeveloped land, which will allow for capacity addition in the future. We also used the expansion opportunity to reposition the resort at a higher level. Earlier in June 2023, we launched our second hotel in Hyderabad, The Westin Hyderabad Hitec City.
With 168 rooms, it has proudly achieved the USGBC LEED Gold certification. It's unique for being entirely managed by lady colleagues and exclusively contracted to a single corporate client for three years. We expanded the capacity at Novotel Pune by adding 88 rooms, increasing inventory by about 40%. We continue to expand our portfolio. Our current plan involves adding approximately 870 more rooms to our portfolio, along with an additional office target provided. To fuel this growth, we earmarked over INR 2,000 crores as capital to be invested over the next three years. Going forward, our aim is to enhance our presence significantly across segments and markets. In the quarter gone by, the company successfully raised INR 1,000 crores through a QIP, further strengthening our balance sheet. Historically, Chalet has followed the path of high capital productivity through an optimal mix of leverage in its balance sheet.
This strength, along with our ability to deliver high capital efficiency, creates a compelling growth opportunity for the company. A little earlier, I spoke about the strength of demand for our industry. For Chalet, the robust pickup of demand seen in Q3 FY 2024 continued into the next quarter in Q4, largely led by corporate travel, MICE weddings, and social events. Q4 recorded new highs in average room rates at 11,862, which is up 5% over the previous year. It is up by 8% on same-store basis. Occupancy has improved 2% year-on-year to 76%, leading to the highest-ever quarterly record of 8,984. Hospitality segment revenue grew by 24% year-on-year to INR 3.8 billion. Room revenue grew by 24% over the previous year, and the portfolio F&B revenue was about INR 1.2 billion, which is 26% higher. Costs remained well under control, resulting in high flow-through during the quarter.
Our EBITDA for the hospitality division was INR 1.8 billion, with one of the highest EBITDA margins of 47.8%. Consolidated revenue for the quarter at INR 4.2 billion, with an EBITDA of INR 1.9 billion. The EBITDA margin was at 44.5%. This is, again, the highest revenue EBITDA for the company in a single quarter till date. Adjusted for the one-off expenses at Dukes and Koramangala, the adjusted EBITDA margin for us works out to 46.4%, which is same as what it was in Q4 of last year. For the full year, average room rates were again at a decadal high of 10,718, with occupancies of 73%. Hospitality revenue and EBITDA were at a lifetime high of INR 13 billion and INR 5.7 billion, respectively, with EBITDA margins of 44.4%.
Please note that on a consolidated level, the company's EBITDA surpassed the INR 6 billion mark, with an EBITDA margin of 42%. Some updates on our project pipeline: as at the end of the year, our capital work in progress, along with assets to be operationalized, stands at INR 13.5 billion. We're looking at investing over INR 20 billion over the next three years across various CapEx projects. This number does not include the residential project at Bangalore. With strong recovery in Bangalore, we're looking forward to the 125-room addition at the Marriott Whitefield, taking the inventory up to 520 rooms by the end of FY 2025. The Dukes Retreat in Lonavala is undergoing a major upgradation and repositioning. The resort will have a final inventory of approximately 145 keys, and we look forward to welcoming guests to that hotel by the end of this calendar year.
As you're aware, we're working on new assets at the Delhi Airport with around 390 keys and Hyatt Regency at Airoli with about 280 keys. These are set to open their doors for guests in FY 2026 and FY 2027, respectively. The construction of the second commercial tower at Westin Powai Complex, Cignus 2, is progressing according to schedule and is expected to be completed in FY 2027. For the residential project at Bengaluru, we have occupation certificates for nine towers, which were built earlier. They're now gearing up for handover. The sales of these flats, which commence in October 2023, have had very good traction, and we've sold 38% of the total units in the last six months, ending till the end of year. Including the historical sales, we have now sold 64% of the total inventory.
The new sales are trending at much higher rates than anticipated earlier, with two new residential towers and one office block, which are new builds. These are under development and are progressing extremely well. On the ESG front, our rating at the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, or DJSI as it's known, reflects an unwavering commitment towards sustainable growth, with an overall score of 57, reflecting an improvement of 14 points over the previous score. We're proud to be ranked eighth amongst hospitality companies globally. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is reflected in the improvement of women employee ratios from 17%-22% in FY 2024. On the environment front, we make strong strides with 3 million sq ft of the portfolio under the Green Footprint now. Ladies and gentlemen, the company is in the early cycle of the flywheel momentum.
As we step into the fresh financial year, our commitment towards creating new benchmarks on operational efficiencies, project execution, and maintaining momentum of organic and inorganic growth remains steadfast. With that optimistic outlook, I now pass the baton to Milind, who will take you through some more financial highlights. Milind?
Thank you. Thank you, Sanjay. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another quarter of fantastic results. The company has reported an EPS growth of 1.5 x to 13.54 per share. As discussed by Sanjay, this year has been marked by a great addition to our portfolio by way of completion of greenfield developments in hospitality and commercial, as well as strategic acquisition in the National Capital Region, ticking all the right boxes of a resort in North India and assets with growth potential. In the hospitality segment, ADR has been growing continuously, touching an average of INR 11,862 during the quarter, which is a growth of 5% year-on-year, with occupancies touching 76% across the portfolio. That is 2 percentage points higher than last year, clearly affirming the demand dynamics of the industry.
As a result, the RevPAR has been INR 8,984, a growth of 7% for quarter four FY 2024. Hyderabad, followed by Bengaluru, saw the highest growth overall, while Mumbai continues to be occupancy leader. Excluding the new asset that is on same-store basis, ADR grew by 8% across the 12,000 mark, and the RevPAR grew by 10%. Hospitality revenue for the quarter was INR 3.8 billion, a growth of 24%, led by a combination of rate growth, inventory addition, and F&B contributions. The quarter also delivered one of the highest EBITDA margins of 47.8%, with an expansion of 30 basis points, despite the new inventory, which is getting stabilized, and some inventory is under renovation. This was led by prudent cost control measures. On the rental and annuity front, our leasable area doubled to 2.4 million sq ft from 1.2 million sq ft last year.
Our revenue for the quarter was at INR 354 million, with an EBITDA of INR 272 million. With leasing for new towers picking pace, as already explained by Sanjay, the operating costs for these new towers would average out over the course of this year, and flow-throughs are expected to improve over the year. Coming to the residential updates, we have sold 79 new units during the quarter, totaling to 121 units during the year. Total collection is INR 2.5 billion. In all, 204 units have been sold during the historical, including historical sales. Consolidated revenue for the quarter was INR 4.2 billion, a growth of 23% year-on-year. Consolidated EBITDA was at INR 1.9 billion for quarter four FY 2024, with a growth of 18% year-on-year and margins of 44.5%. Consolidated PAT for the quarter was INR 0.8 billion, with a growth of 125% year-on-year.
Through our constant efforts to sourcing green power and upgrading infrastructure with energy-efficient equipment, we have achieved an all-time low utilities cost, which is 4.1% of revenue, creating new benchmarks for the industry. During the year, the company spent INR 6.6 billion in investment across capital expenses and acquisitions, which was majorly met out of its internal accruals. The net debt, as on March 2024, was at INR 25 billion, marginally up from the previous year. Around half of the debt is allocable to capital work in progress and assets not yet operationalized. We closed the year with the cost of finance at 8.87%. The company has a CapEx plan of around INR 15 billion for the next two years for the announced project, which will be largely funded through internal accruals. The details of the projects are included in our investor presentation.
Since the completion of QIP, the net debt, as on 30th April 2024, is down to INR 14.6 billion, leaving the company at healthy leverages and return ratio on invested capital. With this, we open the floor for question and answer.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have our first question from the line of Vikas from Antique Stock Broking. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Yeah. Hi. Good morning to the management.
Mr. Vikas, may I request you to use your handset mode, please? You're not very clear.
Is it better now?
Yes. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hi. So good morning to the management. So my first question is, this quarter, followed up by the last quarter, we have seen a decline in pricing on an annual basis. So do we think now, from here onwards, pricing should mirror more inflation growth, or maybe it would be more like a mid-single to high-single digit as base is already there? That's my first question. And just to follow up on that, in the Mumbai region, we have shown a 2% growth. And if I compare it with maybe one of your peers, which reported numbers, they have seen 8% growth. So any trends are you picking there?
Hi, Vikas. Thank you for your question. Yeah. So looking at pricing, overall, once we've shown a growth of about 5% for the quarter, our same-store basis ADR growth is actually 8%. And for the year, our ADR growth is 17%. In the Mumbai metropolitan region, the two hotels that we are following are occupancy-led. One of them is a Powai Hotel, which is 777 rooms, and the other is where we're maintaining and ensuring that we retain market share is the Four Points by Sheraton in Vashi. These two hotels, largely, we are either protecting market share or increasing occupancies as a strategy. And I think it's in line with our plans.
From our perspective, overall growth for Mumbai is 14% for the year. And for the hotels in other cities, it's about 23%, with a blended ADR increase of 17%, which continues to be an extremely healthy rate growth.
Yeah. Yes, Sanjay. Just to follow up, I mean, it's not with the Chalet and even with the others who have reported. We have seen the growth moderating because if I look at the first half, we were doing more like a double-digit growth. For the industry, it was more like 18% pricing growth. Now, suddenly, we are seeing everybody reporting somewhere between 4%-8% kind of a so I was just trying to understand. I understand the last two years, the growth was very strong. So now, is it base which is catching up, or do we still have a lot of scope? Maybe rates moving to $200, $250 in the next two, three years? And this quarter is more of a one-off.
Because, you're right, the base has increased significantly. I mean, we've had two consecutive years of rate growths and almost eights quarters of rate growths. There will be the base effect that will come into play. That's happening to a certain extent. And then quarter four was already an extremely good quarter last year as a quarter. And therefore, there will be those effects that will continue to happen. I think what we should look at is, see, India is cyclical in nature in the annual cycle itself, which is the seasonal impact, non-seasonal impact. The clear opportunity for headroom for growth will continue to be in lower occupancy months or, sorry, lower rate months going forward. And on a blended basis, I think we'll continue to deliver good rate growths.
Our focus is supposed to make sure that we continue to be market leaders and we continue to protect our market share in each of these markets. Each hotel will need their different strategy, and that's what's playing out.
Sure. Sure. That's pretty clear. The final question is for Milind. Milind, in the PPT, we have given receivables of INR 320 crore from Bengaluru real estate sales. So how should we when this revenue will be recognized in P&L, how should we build it? I mean, it will start flowing in from next year, next fiscal year onward? I mean, just any help you can give around that would be great.
So, Vikas, to recognize revenue for residential projects, three conditions are required to be fulfilled. One is handing over of possession, 90% of collection, and receipt of occupation certificate. We have received OC. When we hand over possession, we'll get more than 90% collection. These two conditions can be fulfilled. We are in the final stage of de-snagging, and we expect maybe by this quarter end, we'll be able to complete and hand over possession to the flat owners. There are some challenges from labors, and laborers have moved out to their hometowns for election. This is a temporary delay, and we are targeting to complete this project and hand over possession by the end of June. Let me recap here. I think it's about the accounting entries that we're referring to. Two things will happen.
One is accounting entry will come in, and we believe, in quarter two with the three conditions being met. Number two, collections will also improve significantly once we do the handover. So that combined together will show up in quarter two results. I mean, Vikas, to add further, I mean, on the residential side, we had 8.62 lakh sq ft sellable area. Out of that, we have sold I mean, all sales was around one-third, 2.84. We have sold 2.89, and that is one-third. And unsold inventory as of today is only 2.89, which is one-third. And we are expecting a rate of more than INR 20,000 for unsold inventory.
Okay. This is very helpful. Thanks a lot, and best of luck for the next quarter.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take a next question from the line of Karan Khanna from Ambit. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. Firstly, congrats on adding one more hotel into your portfolio and thus entering the Delhi NCR market. So my first question, Sanjay, just if you look at your previous earnings calls and media interviews, you sounded fairly confident about a double-digit room rate growth for the industry and for Chalet over the next two to three years. Based on the commentary so far, I sense some amount of cautious optimism regarding this. So if you can help me understand more on this fund because, well, you did allude to the fact that you wanted to protect market share within the Mumbai market. But how should we read this? Because your FTA or the foreign guests in your portfolio, that's increased from 37%-43%, and your room rates are still sub-$150 a night.
Despite that, I think we've seen a fair amount of muted growth in the air for Mumbai. So as we enter FY 2025 and potentially the next two to three years with 30% room addition to your portfolio over the next three years, how confident are you about sustaining double-digit rate hikes over the next three to five years?
So, Karan, firstly, we try not to give guidance on our rates. The questions that I've addressed in the past have all been about the industry. Having said that, I'm confident that we will continue to do extremely well and work at industry rates and rate growths. And we believe the industry has an upside of double-digit rate growth going forward. And to reiterate, we have delivered 17% rate growth this year. It may not look like on a quarter-to-quarter basis, but the whole idea is to swap the months and quarters which have headroom for rate growth for rate growth and months that have opportunity for occupancy growth with occupancy growth. As I also said earlier, the strategy for each hotel will continue to be different, and we'll address them one hotel at a time. So overview, we are in an extremely good space.
The demand continues to outpace the rate of growth in supply. None of our confidence has changed on that. We continue to be extremely bullish about the industry going forward.
Sure. Just talking about the NCR asset, can you elaborate more on the potential of this property? If I'm not mistaken, you're already clocking INR 7-INR 7.5 crore sort of a monthly run rate at the Aravali Resort. How should one think about the ramp-up of this asset? And given the seasonality, should one think of this asset with say 50%-60% occupancies with higher RRs, or will the steady state occupancies of this asset be closer to your rest of the portfolio?
Karan, again, we don't give forward-looking numbers. But the hotel has done well, and it is still on its ramp-up phase as a resort. Two elements that I'd like to highlight here. It is positioned at a price point which is competitive and is competing against three or four similar sort of position hotels in that market. Number two, it's a resort property, and therefore, will have seasonal impacts. So occupancies will be lower than what typical city hotels do. Number three, the property has come with six acres of unutilized land. And the true sweating of this asset is going to happen through capacity addition. And that capacity addition, in our minds, is going to happen at a higher level of product positioning, which will allow significant upsides going forward.
Sure. Currently, in the previous earnings call, Sanjay, when asked by one of the participants on the potential fundraise, you said the idea is to keep gunpowder dry in organic opportunities and hence the fundraise. But if you look at the utilization of the net proceeds, you've used a large chunk of this capital to pay down debt. So just wanted to understand your thoughts on the same and whether you think there are not adequate acquisition opportunities available in the market because of which you found it prudent to deliver the balance sheet.
So, Karan, the stated purpose of the capital raise is to pay down debt and general profit purposes. We've gone exactly as per plan. It does strengthen our balance sheet further to create headroom for growth opportunities going forward. This has just happened over the last month or so. M&A activities don't happen in a month, two months, three months. There are longer-term plans on this. And we will come back to you with the opportunities of growth that we have on the anvil as our BD team closes some of those.
Sure. And lastly, if I may, I'm looking at slide number 11 of the presentation. Effectively, your staff-to-room ratio has largely stabilized at 0.93x, while payroll cost as a percentage of your revenue has been inching higher. As we enter FY 2025, how should one potentially think about operating leverage in the business and if there's headroom for margins to further expand?
We continue to be extremely positive about our margin and some margin expansion. At 11.9%, I'm pretty sure for the quarter and actually 12.8% for the year, we'll probably be industry leaders by a huge margin. I don't want to compare against others, but you might want to do a comparative check on that. Overall margins, we are very, very bullish.
Sure. Thank you, Sanjay. And all the best.
Thank you, Karan.
Thank you. We'll take a next question from the line of Archana Gude from IDBI Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the opportunity, and congrats on another best-show quarterly performance. I have two questions. Firstly, on this Aravali Resort, can you give us some color on the revenue mix in terms of retail and maybe events and mice, etc.?
Hi, Archana. Thank you again. So it's largely a resort product. It has three primary segments that it caters to, the first primary one being family holidays or drivable-distance locations. So typically, from Friday to Sunday, that's our primary segment that fills up the hotel. And typically, it's a premium rate to restaurant business. The other two segments are MICE, which is corporates doing events, meetings, conferences, etc., at the hotel. And the third big segment is weddings. Weddings, of course, are limited to a number of the auspicious days that happen in a year and can be sort of interspersed in different months depending on the auspicious months. The rest of the months largely leisure family stays, some friends and family groups, and conferences. So this is a segment mix. We are looking at two, three things with this asset.
1, we are trying to further upwardly position this asset through a potential brand change over the next few quarters. Second big-ticket item is the expansion opportunity that I referred to earlier. Overall, extremely excited about the opportunity with this asset.
Sure, sir. Sir, my second question is more on the industry level. In the presentation, it is mentioned that the demand is growing at 11% while the supply is inching up by 9%. When do you see the supply side surpassing demand at industry level, and does that pose a concern on ADR, which has been growing at a little double-digit till now?
I think we've got, at least for the visible future, which is the next two, three, four years, demand is expected to outstrip supply. Beyond that, it's very difficult right now.
Sure. But to state that, should we expect some moderation in the ADR growth on the high base or mix after a couple of years?
Will ADR growth happen? Absolutely. Moderate after some time, yes, that's also likely.
Sure. That answers my question. So thank you so much, and all the best, sir.
Thank you, Archana.
Thank you. We'll take a next question from the line of Jinesh Joshi from Prabhudas Lilladher. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. I, again, have a question on ARRs. So, sir, if I remember right, in the last current call, you had mentioned that corporate rates have been renegotiated higher by about 12%-20%. And if my understanding is right, typically, corporate rates are lower than retail rates. So if the renegotiation is in the double-digit, then in such a scenario, how come our overall ARR growth is at about 5%? So if you can just share some insights on this.
Sure. So our actual ARR growth is 8%, Jinesh. So let's put that right in terms of same-store basis. When you add assets, you got to look at them a little separately than the same-store basis assets. At 8% for the quarter and 17% for the year, we continue to have a fairly good space that we are in. In terms of how does this stack up, please remember there is a mix of segments that comes into play. The corporate segment, typically, and I think I've spoken about it earlier, is 60% in the typical hotels in Mumbai for us. Out of that 60%, half is on the contracted side. The rest of it comes through retail.
The retail growth last year, in terms of pace of growth, was higher than it has been this year only because it's come off a higher base, not maybe in terms of absolute value. So that's the answer for this. The other thing that's happened is at two of our hotels, and I did allude to this earlier, we are and especially the big one in Powai, our strategy is to fill up the hotel post-renovations. Therefore, we are taking a lot of MICE business. We've also taken on crew business, which has now gone up from, I think, what, 40, 50, 60 rooms to 100 rooms almost, which typically comes at a lower rate, but it tends to fill up holidays, weekends, etc. That will have its impact of averaging out the rate growth slightly.
Understood. Sir, my second question pertains to certain comments which you had made in the earlier call regarding Taj, Delhi, and Airoli. I think you had mentioned in the last earnings call that the construction at Taj has already begun. So if you can just share what is the progress there? And also, construction at Airoli was supposed to begin within a quarter or so. So has it already started? Any updates on that?
I'm sorry, sir. You're not clearly audible. No, sir. Not very clear.
Okay. Let's check the car. Let's go check.
Ladies and gentlemen, we request you to stay connected, please. Yes, sir. Please go ahead.
Apologies for that. Can you hear me? Am I audible now?
Yes.
Okay. So to come back to your question, Jinesh, Taj construction is underway. As you know, this is a warm-shell lease from Delhi International Airport Limited. So they're doing the construction part. They are still in the substructure stage. There are three basements in the property. So the work's going on that. As per our current estimate, we expect to continue to complete this project by Q4 of 2027, which is sorry, Q4 of 2026, which is roughly around two years from now.
And the Airoli one, sir?
And Airoli. So, apologies for that. Airoli, we expect to start work in October. We should get approvals in the next few months' time, couple of months. But then if it monsoons then, so we'll wait for the monsoon to end.
Sure. Sir, one last question from my side. Again, this pertains to your ARR growth in the MMR region, which is at 2%, but you did highlight that you're focusing more on occupancy in Powai and Four Points Sheraton. Predominantly, that is the reason why your growth is slightly soft. Are we seeing any pricing pressure, especially in the MMR market surrounding the airport area given quite a few new hotels have come up? In that context, I mean, if you can just share at Marriott Sahar, what was the ARR growth in this quarter and for the full year?
So, Jinesh, firstly, on individual hotels, we don't give the average room itself because it's competitive information that we don't want to release in the market. And that's why we've clubbed it all together. Sahar is also on a very high base right now. Remember that. So therefore, whilst we expect that to grow, there will be bits and pieces which will maybe not grow at the rates that you expect them to grow, but it'll continue to grow at a very healthy rate. Our strategy at Sahar is rate-led. Our strategy at Powai is occupancy-led. And at Four Points by Sheraton, because there is 3x capacity addition over there in the Navi Mumbai area, is to protect market share and continue to do well. In terms of new supply, we really have had no supply come into the market as yet.
We do expect direct competition to come in the market in maybe early next calendar year or end of this calendar year through the proposed Fairmont Hotel at the airport.
Sure. So just one follow-up. I understand you cannot reveal the exact numbers, but is it possible to share whether the ARR growth at Marriott Sahar was it in middle digit, low single digit, or high single digit?
Let me just pick this up. Just give me a second. It's a double digit.
Marriott Sahar, is it double-digit growth in 4Q ?
Thank you for yeah.
Thank you so much, and all the best.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to answer queries from all participants, please restrict your questions to two at a time. You may join back the queue for follow-up questions. We'll take the next question from the line of Kaustubh Pawaskar from Sharekhan by BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you for giving me the opportunity, and congrats for a good set of numbers. Sir, my first question is on your Aravali Resort, which you have recently acquired. So are we planning to.
Speaking louder?
Yeah.
May I request you to use your handset mode, please, Mr. Pawaskar?
Just a second. Is it better now?
Yes. Please go ahead.
Yeah. So my question is on the Aravali Resort acquisition. I just want to know whether are we planning to invest in renovation of any of the rooms for this property? And if yes, what kind of renovation cost you are planning to put? Secondly, are all the rooms under the property currently operational, or there are certain rooms which you are planning to renovate, and they might be operational in the next two to three quarters?
So Kaustubh, considering Marriott in Aravali, is a fairly new property. It will not need any renovation or refurbishment for a few years. All 158 rooms are operational. The only thing that we may do is to reposition the brand in the sense, if we have an opportunity of taking the brand up from Courtyard by Marriott to a higher brand, there may be some brand specs that we need to be incorporated, but that's going to be small, very small cost, small change. But we have no need to renovate the property at this stage. The two things that are going to happen in that property, one is the repositioning of the brand. Second is there's a potential activity center that was halfway that we'll complete.
And thirdly, the six acres that we have at hand, we'd like to use that opportunity for expanding capacity with a better quality product, a higher quality product, to take the positioning further up.
Okay. So we will be having all the rooms available from quarter one of this year for our model?
Yeah, available.
Yeah. Okay. Sir, my second question is on two of your key regions, that is Bangalore and Hyderabad. So any color on those regions, how is the demand environment in both this region and whether you will see average room rental also picking up in these two regions, considering the pickup what we have seen in the demand, especially in Bangalore after when I guess last year, it was little, but after that, it started picking up. So how is the demand environment, and what is your take on both these areas?
Certainly. So look, Bangalore was one of the slower cities to take off, but over the last couple of quarters, it's done extremely well. And it's now caught pace with the pre-pandemic performances. In fact, the RevPAR at Bangalore in Q4 is almost, what, 18%-20% higher, which is a significant growth over the previous year. So that's caught up and doing extremely well now. Same with Hyderabad. Hyderabad, as a market in general, is doing extremely well. So we've seen significant growth in Hyderabad. And if I was to look at Hyderabad as a percentage of growth, our rate growth there is roughly wait, just a second. Give me a second. 20% and a RevPAR growth of 33% there. So clearly, Hyderabad and Bangalore continue to do extremely well.
The occupancies in Bangalore would be much higher this year for us compared to what it was last year?
Occupancy is in a better tricky situation in Bangalore because Bangalore had a slower pickup on the IT side. Bangalore, like I was speaking earlier, each hotel will have its own strategy. Our strategy is to take the rate growth up. There, we are focusing on rate as against occupancy because occupancies are fairly stable.
Right. Okay. Thanks. Thanks for the understanding. All the best for you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we request you to restrict to two questions, please. You may join back the queue for follow-up questions. We'll take a next question from the line of Rishikesh Bhagat from Kotak Mutual Fund. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks. Two questions. First is on potential CapEx in FY 2025 and 2026. Secondly, on the Hyderabad market, what is the supply likely over the next probably two years or three years in the major markets, considering the ARR growth of 20% that you spoke?
Thank you. Milind will address the first question later. I'll just address the second one first to begin with. The supply side for Hyderabad, especially in the micro markets that we're looking at, is extremely limited. I'm told there's another hotel coming up, but that's in the Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills side, which is not the market that we address. So there's no supply pressure on that side at all. I just want to come back to an earlier number that I shared about JW Marriott. One correction, our rate growth there is actually 9%, not 10% for the quarter. However, for the year, it is 18%. The RevPAR growth was 10% there for the quarter. Milind, do you want to come in on the?
On CapEx, we'll be spending around INR 1,500 crore for the next two years. Out of that, around INR 700 crore for commercial tower, INR 650-INR 700 at the new commercial tower, which we are adding in Powai. There is some spillover CapEx of our commercial tower, which is almost ready in Powai and Bangalore. The balance will be for DIAL, Dukes expansion and renovation, Bangalore addition, and some repairs and renovation CapEx of hotels. Thanks.
Thank you. We'll take a next question from the line of Nirav Seksaria from Living Root Analytics. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Am I audible?
Yes, you are.
Please go ahead.
So in the Indian economy, religious tourism is playing out well for many peers. Sir, is Chalet planning to participate in this?
At the moment, we don't have anything in the pipeline that is targeted towards a specific religious tourism destination.
In the near future, is there any plan to enter into such location or anything as such?
We continue to explore all markets on a pan-India basis across segments. We've looked at Varanasi and Ayodhya also as potential markets to study. We don't think we've found a compelling enough opportunity as of now from an investment perspective. I can understand if I had a brand and an asset-like business model, it wouldn't have hurt me to put a few hotels in Varanasi and Ayodhya. From a return on investment perspective, I'm not so sure we have the right objective.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take a next question from the line of Sumit Kumar from JM Financial. Please go ahead.
Hi, sir. Good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the other expenses. There has been a good amount of increase on that. So any one-off that we should be taking into account? And the second one would be on the one-time expenses of INR 81 million. If you could explain a little bit more on what those one-time expenses were.
Yeah. Milind will come in with the details on that. It's never good to have one-offs, however you use the term a good increase in expenses. I don't think we'll ever be happy with an increase in expenses when Milind comes in. So one-off expenses includes decapitalization of some assets of our Dukes property, which is getting renovated, some cost of acquisition of Aravali. And in our Koramangala residential project, we have physically verified the entire inventory which was lying. And inventory which was identified as not usable is charged off to P&L. And we will realize some value from sale of that, but the entire value of inventory is charged off to P&L. To answer your question, it's one-off, all the INR 8.1 crore?
These are non-recurring expenses accounted for the quarter on the other expenses. Other expenses include some increase which has come from our commercial business as a new tower and cost which is linked to these. Other expenses include royalty management fees paid to operators. So increase on account of volume is accounted there.
Sir, just one follow-up. We expect these costs to normalize going forward?
Sorry. Could you repeat the question again?
We expect these costs to normalize going forward, or will they remain at these elevated levels? Any guidance on that?
If you look at our cost structure, I mean, payroll and heat, light, and power is—I mean, payroll, let's say it's fixed. Heat, light, power is semi-variable. Admin expenses are fixed. Our F&B cost is pass-through. And other costs are mostly variable in nature. I mean, what we pay to operators is variable. It is linked to top line or bottom line, right? So more or less, it will remain at this level except the cost which is variable in nature.
Okay, sir. Thank you. That's fair enough. I mean, thanks for answering my question. All the best.
Thank you. We'll take a next question from the line of Saurabh Jain from HDFC Life Insurance. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. So a couple of questions on my side. First is on this Aravali Resort. You mentioned that they're also looking at expanding the inventory there. But with the sizable inventory of about 160-odd rooms and occupancy that they did last year was about 40%, wouldn't it be prudent to ramp up the occupancy first and then look for expansion? And generally, we see that the resort properties are in this range of 150-200 inventory. So what makes you confident that adding inventory here will lead to more occupancy and more revenue?
So Saurabh, any capacity addition will be paced with the demand pickup on the property, number one. Number two, it takes time to design and get approvals. We will get to that stage and get that out of the way and then wait for the right time. From our perspective, as I said earlier, because it's a fairly large area, we can potentially do a completely different brand, a higher-level brand, and do a dual-brand sort of product over there so that we can get the benefit of higher rates. But having said that, you're absolutely right. We have always been prudent in our investments. We will continue to ensure that the market is deep enough for us to expand capacity.
Okay. That's helpful. Secondly, I just need to understand this slide on real estate development in Bangalore a little better. So when you say the receivables are about INR 3-odd billion, so this is, again, the sale of 5.7 lakhs square, or what is it again?
Yes. It includes receivable against sale. I mean, the total sale value minus amount which is collected is shown as receivables. So for the area what we have sold, I mean, the total sales value is around INR 550 crore. We have collected around INR 250 crore. And against all sales, there are some receivables. It's the combined receivable value of the earlier sales as well as the right, Milind?
I think that's right.
Yes, yes. Gotcha.
Totally about 121 + 80 or 200-odd apartments have a receivable value of INR 300-odd crores.
Okay. Got it. And just to understand, so generally, we are seeing this real estate upcycle that as soon as the project gets launched, all the units are sold out. So why this 2.9 lakh sq ft of space is still lying unsold? I'm just failing to understand that.
It depends on what price point you're selling at, right? The luxury properties tend to have a cycle of sale which is slightly longer than the just below luxury sort of positioning. This is the luxury positioning, number one. Number two, two towers which have a significant inventory which you can just pick up that number, how many apartments those are. We just started work in the last quarter, last couple of quarters. So obviously, they will follow a cycle of buildup before sales happen. Also, for anything that does not have an OC, there's a 5% GST impact to the buyers. And we had actually slowed down sales for the new towers in between, which we have now opened up again.
So when is this possession starting? You said that starting by the end of this quarter. In what time will the entire project be given possession to the end consumer?
Sorry, sir. Your voice is not very clear.
So, Milind has shared the numbers, sorry, the timeline a little earlier in the last conversation. Milind, can you come back?
So Saurabh, I mean, this project is in two phases, nine buildings which are almost ready, and we can hand over possession by end of this quarter or early next quarter, and two wings which are new buildings which are getting constructed. So these first nine wings, whatever area sold, we can recognize revenue. Unsold inventory, as and when we sell it, we'll recognize revenue. And KL wing, I mean, two new towers, we expect what will be completed by FY 2025, March 2025, and we'll recognize revenue at that time.
And to answer your question on why we paced it like this, so if we've been able to take the project up from an earlier price point in this area of about INR 13,000-INR 13,500 per sq ft to current blended price of INR 18,800 per sq ft, we are hoping to take it higher. So I guess the strategy is working for us.
Got it. Just the last thing, is there an update on the leasing facet of the commercial towers in Bangalore and Powai?
Sorry, the commercial towers?
Leasing.
Leasing traction.
Yeah.
We had roughly, if I recall, about 400,000 sq ft of Bengaluru that was leased out earlier. You'll probably see from the presentation another, I think, 40,000-odd that's come in there. We've, in the last 1 week, closed another big client. We will come back with the details, but we are now talking about another increase of 175,000-odd sq ft to this, which will take us to roughly an excess of 600,000, which is two-thirds of the building. On Powai, we are currently at about 140,000 sq ft, and we are on final stages of, I think, three deals now which will give us a major step up in the leasing activity.
Okay. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. We'll take a next question from the line of Prateek Kumar from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hello. Yeah. Good afternoon, sir. I have a couple of questions. Firstly, so you have 12%, 12%-13% kind of ARR and RevPAR growth in Q4 in other markets than MMR. I think you have said these numbers earlier, but can you just give the split of this 12% in various markets like Bangalore, Hyderabad, and maybe Pune?
No, I don't think we mentioned 12%-13% growth on that part. What is the RevPAR for the three reported?
Yeah. I've taken it from presentation only.
Yeah. 7% growth in Q4 for overall blended portfolio. Other markets is 13%, and the MMR was 7%. On a same-store basis, the RevPAR for growth is slightly higher. As a breakup, okay, I can sort of share this because there's quickly a lot of questions around this. We've got, in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, three hotels: the Westin at Powai with 777 rooms, JW Sahar at the airport with 588 rooms, and the Four Points by Sheraton in Navi Mumbai with 152 rooms. Where we've seen the rate not growing as per what the question or queries are around are Powai and Four Points. We've seen significant growth in JW Sahar. I think I've already shared that earlier, that the JW Sahar rate growth was 9% for the quarter. On a year-to-date basis, of course, it is roughly around 18%.
Mumbai and Bangalore also have shared the rate growths: 20% for Hyderabad, 26% for Bangalore in the quarter four. On a YTD basis, 35% for Hyderabad and 32% for Bangalore. What is also dragging some of this down, and therefore, the blend is looking not as encouraging is because we've got two new hotels in this, Dukes Retreat and Westin Hitec, which are at lower rates and therefore drag the blended rate down a bit. Both these hotels were not there the year before that. Therefore, whereas for the year before that, you're looking at a blend. Without them, this year, you're seeing with these two hotels added, and therefore, the numbers are looking maybe a little muted for you. I've already now shared with you the rate growths for the quarter and the year on a property-wise basis.
Over to Sanjay Sethi now, I mean, as we move forward, rates or contribution from Dukes will come at higher ARR. Contribution from Aravali will come at higher ARR. And our portfolio ARR will move up.
May I just add one more element? So please, in your analysis, when you do Dukes, Westin Hitec City, and the 88 additional rooms at Novotel are added capacity at lower rates in the portfolio. So therefore, the blended rates may appear muted to you. I would urge you to maybe analyze that carefully.
Sure. Okay. But on like-for-like property, as you said, in Bangalore, Hyderabad, we are growing 20%-30% for Q4.
20% Hyderabad, 26% Bangalore.
Right. Okay. And one more question on demand mix. Is there anything which gets derived from government travel conferences which would have got impacted in first quarter FY 2025 relating to elections? So government-related travel or any conferences or any trainings which happen in your, I mean, in terms of a customer mix which would impact your business in first quarter 2025, not 4Q?
We've not historically not had too much of government business in our portfolio. Of course, the election impact will be there because there's some slowing down that happens in the respective cities with the dates for election. That clearly will be there but on a limited basis.
The slowdown, except for what? The election? I mean, largely related to government travel. The slowdown is there, or is there any other impact of?
This is on election day specifically. The cities tend to slow down, and people tend to, so if I am in Delhi and I've got my election happening in Delhi that day, I'd like to vote. I'd probably not travel out of Delhi. Similarly, if I could travel to Mumbai and Mumbai elections are happening on that particular day, I may not want to travel to Mumbai because we know the city will largely be slow on that day. So therefore, that does limit some travel. So it affects both the base city of the traveler and the destination city of the traveler. The elections in those cities impact some travel. But that's limited. It happens once in five years.
Sure. Thank you, sir. These are my questions.
Thank you. Before we take the next question, we'd like to request participants to restrict to one question, please. We'll take a next question from the line of Paresh Shah, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, sir. I just wanted to check about the impact of water shortage in Bangalore area, how it is impacted on our sales currently, and what are the steps you are taking to come across this situation for our future sales?
So very good question, Paresh. I think the impact of natural resources globally is a major concern area. At Chalet, we've been working very hard to reduce our consumption, whether it's electricity, water, plastics, all of that, anything that could impact negatively the environment. As we have constantly brought down consumption, for example, our electricity unit consumption per room has come down from 64 to low 50s now. Our water consumption, which used to be around 0.7 - 0.8 KL per room per day, is now down to 0.6 KL per room per day. So we've made significant strides in conserving water. To the specific question about Bangalore, Bangalore unfortunately had this problem of water shortage. For now, we haven't felt any negative impact in terms of access to water or any business impact in our hotel.
Sir, my specific question is regarding our real estate sale and commercial leasing. Is it impacting on price? Is it impacting on your negotiation? I understand that the problem is visible, but are there any plans to circumvent such situation that maybe consciously a company is taking a call that we should not do any expansion in Bangalore or we should not take exposure in Bangalore to the situation is improved? Have you thought about this aspect at management level?
So all decisions on new projects take into account climate and weather and environment. We've actually got a team that signs off on every project towards environment impact before we proceed to a project. In Bangalore, the residential project is an ongoing project, and we've seen no impact on sales or pricing over there. In fact, if anything, our price points have actually gone up. So no challenges or concerns on that front.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Thank you for and wishing you very best for your future.
Thank you. We'll take a next question from the line of Rajiv from DAM Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good afternoon, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. This is regarding the segment assets sheet. There is close to a INR 480 crore drop in the hospitality bit, and there is a big swing on the rental and annuity business side. Can you just explain that?
Rajiv, Milind here. We are looking into details. I mean, looks like there is some error there, but we'll get back to you.
Good. So secondly, if you can, because you have shared the LFL ARR increase, do you have the LFL margin for the hospitality bit, for the same-store margin, in fact?
Sorry? The same-store?
On the hospitality bit, the 8% growth you mentioned, do you have the same-store margin in a sense? I just wanted to get how much drag is from the new additions which you have done.
Let me pick up that number. We actually have that. So our same-store margin is actually at 48.4%, which is margin expansion, if I recall, of what, 200 basis points? Sorry, 80 basis points, but for the year?
Hello?
So margin expansion on same-store basis for the quarter is 80 basis points and 300 basis points for the year.
Sure. Lastly, are we getting this Four Points I mean, due for renovation, and if at all, what is the, let's say, CapEx lineup for that?
So yeah, it is part of our CapEx plan that Milind shared earlier. It is due for renovation. We are up also for a revision on the contract of Marriott. We are discussing what's best for us, and we'll take a decision on that. So based on the decision on what we do with the brand going forward, we will take a decision on what level of CapEx will be required. We've already packed within the CapEx plan for that already.
Sure. On the Powai bit, when you had 100 rooms under renovation in the base year, in your calculation, this is adjusted for that, or this includes that the entire inventory is taken?
We've been taking the entire inventory over the year, and we take the inventory now.
Great. That's all from my side. Thanks for all the data.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Sanjay Sethi for our closing comments. Over to you, sir.
Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your time. Truly grateful for that. We'll be, of course, available for one-on-one meetings when required by you. Please do reach out to us for that. And again, I want to close with this intent to share with you that we're extremely bullish, excited about Chalet Hotels going forward. I think we are in a brilliant space in a mix of high performance, strong market conditions, strong growth trajectory, and a very strong pipeline going forward. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. On behalf of Chalet Hotels, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.