Indian Hotels Company's Asset-Light Strategy Leads to Highest-Ever Annual Profit

As demand outpaces supply in the Indian hotels market, the asset-light Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) reported its highest-ever full year consolidated revenue and a profit after tax of $122 million — a historic first for the company.

In 2019-2020, the company had reported a profit after tax of $750,000.

“The combined performance of the three best years for the company, which was 2006-2008 and 2017-2020, is less than the financial performance of 2022-2023,” said CEO and managing director Puneet Chhatwal at an earnings call on Friday.

Crediting the lease portfolio for providing the company with right operating leverage, the IHCL chief said the management fee business is helping drive margins in a very strong way.

“Our management fee businesses almost doubled in the last year to almost $49 million and this is only going up,” he said.

According to Chhatwal, Indian Hotels already has a balanced portfolio of owned/leased and managed hotels, and if hotels in development are taken into account, the company is alrea