IHCL brands are growing, Ginger expanding fastest: N Chandrasekaran

Business Standard

07-07-2025

The Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), which owns brands such as Taj, Gateway, Vivanta and Ginger, is seeing growth across its entire portfolio, with its midscale brand Ginger expanding at a faster pace due to management contracts, said N Chandrasekaran, Non-Executive Director and Chairman of IHCL, at the company's annual general meeting (AGM).
'Every hotel brand is growing. Ginger will obviously grow fast because it is growing a lot under the management contract, and also the size of investment is less (compared to other brands),' said Chandrasekaran, who is also Chairman of Tata Sons.
He added that while the Taj brand will also grow, it will do so at a slower pace. Tata Group-owned IHCL had 103 Ginger-branded hotels as of April 2025, according to its investor presentation. In FY25, the company signed 74 new hotels and had 26 openings, taking the overall portfolio to 380 hotels. Chandrasekaran also said the company's strategy is to maintain the right price levels for different customer segments through hotels of varying sizes.
The company's consolidated EBITDA margin touched 35 per cent in FY25. Chandrasekaran reiterated that the company's Accelerate 2030 plan aims to expand the global footprint to 700 hotels by 2030 and double revenues to over Rs 15,000 crore.
Internationally, IHCL has no major expansion plans in terms of volume. In FY25, overseas hotels generated revenue of about Rs 1,512 crore.
To another shareholder query, Chandrasekaran said having a heavy concentration of company-owned properties would not support future expansion. However, IHCL would continue to build iconic properties.
'Over the next five to ten years, we will settle at 35 to 40 per cent of hotels being owned (by the company) and 60 to 65 per cent under management,' he said.
Currently, 50 per cent of IHCL's hotels are under management contracts, while the remaining 50 per cent are owned. Around seven to eight years ago, only 5 per cent of its hotels were under management contracts, with 95 per cent being company-owned.
The company has allotted Rs 1,200 crore for capital expenditure and has no immediate plans for fundraising. Over the next five years, the capital expenditure will amount to nearly $1 billion.
In his opening remarks at the AGM, Chandrasekaran also noted that Taj Inner Circle, the company's loyalty programme under Tata Neu, had crossed 10 million members in FY25 and is expected to reach 15 million members in FY26.