WILL INDIAN HOTELS CO'S BULL RUN CONTINUE?

From budget to luxury properties, the hospitality chain has been adding assets across the board

- Varuni Khosla

A quiet transformation is underway at the heart of the Tata group-owned Indian Hotels Co. Ltd (IHCL). The hospitality giant, led by managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) Puneet Chhatwal, has been on a mission to redefine the company's future.

On Tuesday, outlining his vision for India's largest hospitality group at its Capital Markets Day presentation in Mumbai, the understated Chhatwal, clad in a grey suit and blue-striped tie, said, "By 2030, revenue and hotels should double, and ROCE (return on capital employed) should go to 20%-plus."

Industry watchers have come to expect ambitious targets from IHCL given the speed at which it has been adding properties (including those in the pipeline), across segments in recent years, even getting into homestays. They expected Chhatwal to announce that the hotel count would double by 2027.

Perhaps it is a sign that IHCL is looking to do things in a more measured manner from here on. While the company's expansion strategy under Chhatwal has come in for much praise, some have raised questions over its sustainability. Over the last 120 years, the IHCL umbrella has come to be associated with the highest standards, they point out, and this could be the biggest casualty of the company's efforts to get a finger in every pie. In particular, they cite the falling standards at properties other than the ones it owns and manages.