X

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) Q3 FY23 Earnings Concall Transcript

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (NSE:IRCTC) Q3 FY23 Earnings Concall dated Feb. 10, 2023.

Corporate Participants:

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Analysts:

Deep Shah — B&K Securities — Analyst

Jinesh Joshi — Prabhudas Lilladher — Analyst

Shivam Kumar — — Analyst

Dhawal Doshi — IDBI Capital — Analyst

Rahul Jain — Dolat Capital — Analyst

Rohit Bahirwani — Vijit Global Securities — Analyst

Pugas Manoharan — — Analyst

Presentation:

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, good day, and welcome to the Q3 FY ’23 Earnings Conference call of IRCTC, hosted by Dolat Capital.

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. [Operator Instructions] [Technical Issues]

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

[Technical Issues] EBITDA grew at 7% quarter-over-quarter, and EBITDA margin came to at 35.5% versus 37.8% in the second quarter of ’23. This is mostly due to the increase in the share of our catering in the revenue from the operation, which I shall be deliberating in the catering section.

As I have shared earlier, with the headwinds of the pandemic behind and hopefully the travel and the hospitality industry is now looking forward for a much better financial year ’23 and beyond. IRCTC’s business segments can also look up to further improved performance in the change industry environment.

Let me now move to the business segments of the Company [Technical Issues] First is the Internet Ticketing segment, which continued to demonstrate its resilience, and revenue for the quarter was nearly INR300 crores and largely unchanged over quarter-over-quarter.

Despite the decline in the 2S reserve ticket booking, the year-over-year decline was just 3.8% on year-over-year basis. That segment has shown its resilience yet again as regards the profitability is concerned with quarter three results. And debit margins now coming at 84.2% versus unchanged over quarter-over-quarter business and 84.8% on year-over-year basis.

If we discuss about the catering segment, after slight quarter-over-quarter decline in the second quarter of this financial year, we got back to the quarter-over-quarter growth, and revenue from this segment has come to INR394 crores, lower implying the growth of a 17.9% quarter-over-quarter through — though on year-on-year business, it grew at a rate of a 2.8%. Also, the revenue for the catering segment is well ahead of a quarterly run rate in pre-COVID. EBIT margin for the segment came to 10.7% versus 10.6% on quarter-over-quarter and 5.5% on year-over-year basis.

Really, our packaged drinking water segment has seen the third quarter of this financial year revenue coming at INR75.1 crore, which implies a growth of a 4.3% on quarter-over-quarter basis and year-over basis growth is nearly 50%. That was a COVID-impacted year. EBIT margins from this segment saw good improvement this year to 11.8% versus 7.5% quarter-over-quarter basis and 10.1% on year-over-year basis.

Tourism segment in this quarter, quarter three of this financial year, the revenue share came to around INR147.8 crore, which implies a growth of a 49% on quarter-over-quarter basis, and a strong growth of more than 100% on year-over-year basis. Importantly, the segment EBIT margins saw a sharp turnaround to green at 10.8% versus a loss of a 5.5% on quarter-over-quarter basis and 10.1% on year-on-year basis. That is after pandemic. For quarter three of this financial year, the net worth and the cash and the bank balances of the Company remains at INR2,494 crore and INR2,133 crore respectively at the end of this quarter.

So that brings me to end of my opening remarks, where I have given you brief highlight of the financial figures.

Now move to the question-answer session, please. Thank you.

Questions and Answers:

Operator

Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]

We have our first question from the line of Deep Shah from B&K Securities. Please go ahead.

Deep Shah — B&K Securities — Analyst

Good afternoon, ma’am. Thanks for the opportunity. Ma’am, wanted to understand a bit more on the catering segment. What is meeting these margins remain flat despite having record numbers and how should we think about the margin trajectory or the pricing power that we have? That would be my first question.

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

See, in catering, we have three segments. One is the mobile segment. Another is the static segment and the other is the eCatering segment.

In the mobile segment, we carry two types of things. One is the RSD train. That is Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto, Vande Bharat, Gatimaan, etc. They fall in one category. These are the prepaid trains. And in these prepaid trains, our margins are very, very less. We only get the turnover less than the profit margin. That is why you will find and you might have noticed that lot when the trains are being inaugurated on the prepaid format now.

So you are getting more of a turnover, but less of the profit margins. Because entire revenue, which is — our margins are not — are nearly, I think, 5% — nearly only 10% in the catering. That gives the overall momentum — brings overall momentum to the catering business is nearly around 11% to 12% only, if we add income from the other resources.

Deep Shah — B&K Securities — Analyst

Right, ma’am. Ma’am, as a follow-up to this, could you give some update on this new initiative in catering that we had launched about having third-party providers deliver meals to the seats? I think that was with a much better margin, maybe 12% directly to us without any opex. Could you give some update on that? How has that been shaping up?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

I would like to correct you that the margins in the eCatering segments are 15%, not the 12% one, and this business is growing at a rapid pace. In the quarter — third quarter, we have nearly achieved on an average of 40,000 meals a day as compared to our pre-COVID level, although we have surpassed all the pre-COVID levels also. Number of stations have gone up from 310 to 337. Vendors have also gone up. Aggregator has — have also been added. Number of the food aggregators with the vendors have also gone up. We have also tied up with our B2C agents that is MMT, Zigo, Paytm, Goibibo, Railofy, etc. All this has contributed.

Very recently, we have launched our first phase with the WhatsApp booking, which is going to contribute further. As social media has become now a base, very important base for rendering the online businesses. So we have taken a lead and first — the first time we started working with the WhatsApp and brought in the catering segment so that our margin in this segment can improve.

Deep Shah — B&K Securities — Analyst

Right, ma’am. This is very helpful. Thank you so much.

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] We have our next question from the line of Jinesh Joshi from Prabhudas Lilladher. Please go ahead.

Jinesh Joshi — Prabhudas Lilladher — Analyst

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. I have a question on the catering segment. If I remember correctly, in the last quarter, our ESP in pantry car which was roughly with 715 and 450 trains respectively and you had also highlighted that a tender for 200 trains was in pipeline. So what is the progress here in terms of tendering and any plan to expand our pantry car and as such?

And also as a follow-up, I think the ports to the tariff hike, which has happened in the catering segment, the consumer had an option to opt-out of the meal and there has been a considerable time since we have taken the price hike. So what kind of trend are we seeing over year, the opt-out rate higher or lower?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

First, I’ll be answering your first question, Jinesh Ji. That is how many — if there is improvement in the number of a train, yes, tendering process has gone further, not only the new trains, 10 trains which have been added recently in the Vande Bharat series. We have been able to award all the contracts. But in the — all the trains, there’s a pantry cars are there. All those trains’ contracts have been awarded.

Now, we would be going ahead with the — we have also gone ahead — far ahead in the TSV direction also, where the pantry cars are also not there. In that segment, we have already awarded nearly 750 tenders. And out of that many — most of the trains have commissioned their business. 84 LOA have been awarded, but the commencement has to take this because they have to deposit the security, etc.

So you can say total train segment in the train would be 836 and the trains will be 452. When last time in the last quarter, the train number was 440. Now, this is 452, the trains with the pantry cars. And the trains where the pantry car is not there, that is around 752. This makes a total number nearly 1,200 for this train. Any train which is offered to IRCTC is awarded immediately because every train is a revenue with or without pantry car.

Then answer to your second question that opt-out — third question. That is the third question. Second question was about the sales assessment. Sales assessment exercise has been completed. It has — it is being consolidated because the impact is very varied in one zone in the peak season. No impact has been seen. While in the other zone, some impact has been seen. So some consolidation and we are getting that already done, then we would be raising the invoice, if required, depending upon the train. Because peak season we have completed and now the non-peak season is also almost done at various — in the various trains. So we are consolidating. And maybe in the last quarter when we are concluding our financial results, we’ll be giving you the entire information.

Then the opt-out percentage, the opt-out percentage varies from train to train. This opt-out percentage earlier was 10%, then it rose to 20%. Now in few trains, it is 20% and few trains, it is still less. It all depends on the service level. When the service level in the train is good, then the percentage becomes less. But when the people look for more variety and the distances are long, people may opt. But if the eCatering option and route is not available, so we — our effort is to convert this opt-out percentage to the eCatering. That is what we are doing. Because WhatsApp is available. That is why we have gone for the WhatsApp kind of a booking also. So that we are in position to garner the loss revenue, which has gone out of our hands because of opting out.

Jinesh Joshi — Prabhudas Lilladher — Analyst

Sure, madam. My second question is with respect to the privatization opportunity that called for running from 150 trains on 100 routes, which were identified. So is there any fresh update on that? I thought of asking this question because currently, a lot of Vande Bharat stop is being rolled out, and just wanted to get a sense if this can lead to any further delay in that privatization plan?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Privatization was going to happen at the railways’ end. Railway at that time had decided. Then we had participated also, but we had almost won that tender. But that award was not concluded because the participation was low. After that, there is no bid floating or no tender document has been floated. So I may not be in position to comment upon that.

In case railway decides to float the tender, IRCTC is in readiness and our analysis may have to be updated a bit in the current scenario because many new trains are coming up, but catering for those trains is coming to IRCTC only. So we are gaining from those trains also.

Jinesh Joshi — Prabhudas Lilladher — Analyst

Sure, madam. One last bookkeeping question. What was the convenience revenue and number of ticket booked for the quarter?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

The number of ticket books was, surprisingly, we were earlier anticipating that with the — going away with the 2S category, our overall booking will go down. But it is nearly the same. Our average booking in the year 2021 was 11.45 lakhs tickets a day. No, it is every booking of the last three quarter has been 11.89 tickets a day. It is going to — it is nearly same. Though in the first quarter, it was little more. Then in the second quarter, it went down. Third quarter, it went down. So some impact of the second desk has been there.

And our convenience fee has contributed nearly 67% of the revenue in the Internet Ticketing segment and non-convenience fee resources have contributed to 33%. If you ask me the quarter — this total revenue of the nine months in the Internet Ticketing, from convenience fee, it was INR604 crores [Phonetic]. And from non-convenience fee, it has been INR307 crore, putting together the total revenue from this segment has been INR911 crore. And the profitability margin in the Internet Ticketing segment has contributed at the same rate, highest debit margin revenue seen in this. And I think your next last question was — can you please repeat, sir?

Jinesh Joshi — Prabhudas Lilladher — Analyst

The number of ticket booked — you gave us the average number for the first nine months, but if you can just give me absolute quantum for this quarter?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Q3 segment is 11.3 lakhs, 11.3 lakhs tickets a day.

Jinesh Joshi — Prabhudas Lilladher — Analyst

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Operator

Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Shivam Kumar, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Shivam Kumar — — Analyst

Thanks for the opportunity, ma’am. My question is regarding tourism sector that it’s margin is around 9%. Where do you see the future margin?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Yes. You might have noticed that IRCTC has launched the Bharat Gaurav series. So in that series, we have already taken eight rigs, two rigs, we had already with that. So that gives the total inventory of 10 rigs. These are the theme-based rigs, which are going to be designed specially. Because earlier when we used to launch a route, at that time, we have difficulty in getting the rolling stock. So now we are in readiness and we have a tourism rolling stock, which is customized through the tourist needs. So each rig can run as a — minimum it can run up to 240 days minimum. Maximum, it can go up to 300 days also in a year.

So if you normally — when we were doing Bharat Darshan and other trains, put together, we were not running more than 150 trains in a year. With these rates, we would be running more than 300 trains in a year. Rather more, we would be adding more. Many new circuits we are going to launch. We have already experimented few and you will find the new circuit in the pipeline.

So that is going to give you an additional revenue of nearly INR200 crore if everything goes right in the tourism sector and nothing adverse happens because hospitality is a very sensitive sector and tourism is the worst affected. Anything goes wrong, your booking goes down. If everything goes right, then tourism has a bright future. Not only the total revenue in this segment is going to rise, but the margins are also going to improve.

Shivam Kumar — — Analyst

My second question is regarding railway. Any plan of increasing the price of bottle as — when it was last revised also?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

We have found some increase in the production cost of the railway because of the increase on the pack cost. That is a preformed cost has gone up. So we are examining this. We are not yet sure how it is going to take forward. We are trying to make up with the increased volumes our Bhusawal plant is ready. Anytime it can be commissioned. Simhadri is also ready. Anytime it can be commissioned.

Final bottle, all licensing — respective [Phonetic] licensing work is pending. We had thought of launching both of them in the month of January. But somehow, some licensing work we’re still pending. So we would be doing — trying to compete within this month or by March, we will be launching both. So who we would be gaining by increasing the production? But the increase in the pricing, yes, we are working on. We are still examining. We’ll let you know very soon.

Shivam Kumar — — Analyst

And my last question is regarding the overall margin. Where do you see it stabilizing in FY ’24 as it is consequently declining in last seven quarters?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Last quarter — in one quarter, we are contributing nearly — if you see the past quarter, the total revenue. And each quarter is giving nearly INR850 crore. In the first quarter of this financial year, we had the revenue from the operations, revenue from all resources have been nearly INR852 crore. In the second quarter, it was INR805 crore. In the third quarter, it was INR948 crore. Of course, this includes the taxation, this includes the interest part of it also.

So the next quarter is also going to be the same because the number of our trains is going to increase only. And our — but our profile — business profile is going to change because our contribution from the catering segment in the revenue portion is going to be higher than the Internet Ticketing. If you ask me percentage contribution, the percentage contribution of the catering is going to increase and going to be nearly the pre-COVID levels.

At that time, the catering was contributing nearly 45% of the revenue. And that revenue has a lower EBIT margin as compared to Internet Ticketing. So overall, we may not be impacted and things are very good and very rosy. But our revenue pattern will change, our profitability pattern will change. But overall, it will be a gain. It looks good so far.

Shivam Kumar — — Analyst

Ma’am, pre-COVID margin was 37%, but it has come down now at 35% also?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Because catering business and the Internet Ticketing business cannot be compared. That expenditure — the Internet Ticketing has less expenditure and catering has little more expenditure. You have to do monitoring. You have to provide all the kinds of services. Manpower cost is also involved. So margin in that segment is nearly 12% only, 11% to 12%. And there, it was 82%. If revenue in that segment will rise, so certainly, overall impact will not be there. But the margin will be partially affected. But overall gain in the quarter will be there. That is what I said.

Shivam Kumar — — Analyst

Okay, madam. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Dhawal Doshi from IDBI Capital. Please go ahead.

Dhawal Doshi — IDBI Capital — Analyst

Good afternoon, ma’am. So I just have just one question on depreciation. If we look at it on a Q-o-Q perspective, it has reduced significantly. So just wanted to understand the reason behind it?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

This was because we have done some provisioning. We had to do provisioning on advice of our auditors and accounting team. Excess provisioning for the depreciation had to be done.

Dhawal Doshi — IDBI Capital — Analyst

And this provisioning was with respect to?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Some excess provisioning was done in the previous quarter that had to be reversed in the third quarter. So that is why it has same. Fourth quarter will be okay.

Dhawal Doshi — IDBI Capital — Analyst

Okay. And second question, in the notes, in the financials, we have mentioned that this is an increase in catering tariff for the post and prepaid trains. So if you could just give us some color as to when do we expect this to be received and what is the quantum of this?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Sales adjustment is an exercise, which has been completed. We are concluding the results. So maybe in the next quarter, you will get all the results. It is a very big exercise. We have to do every train line and all the meals. Most of the trains that we have completed and we are going to publish the results soon, and the impact on the revenue also and the license fee.

Dhawal Doshi — IDBI Capital — Analyst

Okay. Thank you. That’s it from my end.

Operator

Thank you. We have our next question from the line of Rahul Jain from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.

Rahul Jain — Dolat Capital — Analyst

Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. My question pertains to the tourism business. Can you share where this growth is largely coming from? Is it the tour package side where we have seen it? And do we expect this similar momentum in Q4 and more so in the holiday season in Q1?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

It is going to be more, Rahul. Because one, the pandemic impact is over, right? Secondly, we have taken a peak of the train, which is again going to contribute in the next financial year. Because most of the trains will be put into operation either in the March end or the first week of April or second week of April. So next year is going to be very good for the tourism. We got — the increase in the revenue in this quarter has been because election trains went up. Many tourist trains we ran, we also run the state train. And we did well in the air packages also. And even in the luxury segment also, we have done very, very well.

So Bharat Gaurav is a new fleet that we are adding to. And that fleet, we have taken 10 rigs. Earlier, we were running only 100 to 150 trains in a year. Now we would be running nearly 300 trains. So you can see the impact that our revenue in this segment is going to achieve a different height.

Rahul Jain — Dolat Capital — Analyst

And you said 300 trains now versus what was the previous number?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

150 only. We are going to double our trains. Mark tourism is going to double.

Rahul Jain — Dolat Capital — Analyst

And for catering, if you could share the operating metrics in terms of the revenues and profits of the TEJAS during the quarter?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

It just has done very well in this quarter because the festival season was also there and continue to do well. The overall revenue from the TEJAS in this financial year, that is a total of three quarters comes out to be INR115 crore and expenses have been nearly INR98.61 crore. So the overall contribution of the TEJAS is nearly INR17.06 crore to the revenue.

Rahul Jain — Dolat Capital — Analyst

Sure. And on the railing side, can you share the number of bottles produced during this quarter and previous quarter? And what we could do here to drive the business given that at the time of IPO, we said we are just doing 40%, 45% of the total demand. And now we have the capacity. But yes, the growth has happened. But where it could go once we improve the distribution of the current output that we have across regions?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

The railway production, all plants utilization was running fine, the old that — much better than just after pandemic. In fact, if you see the capacity utilization of all the plants, average is nearly 75%. And in spite of the fact that December, January, we have less of a demand. Now in the January, also, we are running the plant at a capacity of nearly 70%, which used to be not 30%. We are storing the water to meet the requirement of the summer also. We can store the water up to six months. All water will go by March.

If you ask me the total production that we have done, it is near 24 crore bottles we have produced so far in this financial year. So we have done well in the railway segment. Because of the increase in the production cost because of the preformed rates, the margins have reduced, have been appropriate adversely in the railway segment. But we are still examining it. Now they have reduced in this quarter.

Now the prepaid prices have reduced in this quarter. So we will see the impact and the margin in the segment will also improve. The new plans are ready, Rahul Ji. The plans will be ready — two of them will be commissioned within this financial year. We are waiting with one more license for both of them. So once they are ready, we are going to commission that.

Rahul Jain — Dolat Capital — Analyst

Sure. And lastly, on the ticketing business, if you could give more input in terms of UPI mix right now and AC, non-AC mix, and any further breakup on the non-convenience part of the business?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Certainly, in Internet Ticketing, the average booking has been nearly 11.89 lakhs tickets a day, and our revenue in this segment is INR600 crores. This is more or less same. What we — and the pattern in all the three quarters has been nearly same. That is INR200 crore on the Internet Ticketing. In spite of the fact that the 2S is not there, it has been the same. And our revenue, the non-convenience revenue forces has increased a bit. Whatever we have lost in the second, that is being compensated by the non-convenience fee resources.

As I mentioned in my earlier con call that we are going to increase that revenue to the maximum to the extent possible. In the next two years, we’ll have to bring this percentage, which is now 33% of the total Internet Ticketing revenue to nearly 50%. Because 82% of the ticketing you have already got it and some increase you can anticipate, of course, because internet circulation is still happening in the country. So we need to focus our resources on the non-convenience fee. That is one part of it. When we — how many transactions are happening? What is the share of the UPI? It is nearly 32%. UPI is happening 32%.

And second is booking is nearly the same in last five months, that is ranging between 12% to 13%. And your sleeper class is contributing the maximum. As of now, it is nearly, I think, 44%, followed by 3AC which is 26.8% and nearly 13% is your 2S. 2S is 6%, like that. The rest all is very meager. So — and the train which we are operating is nearly 3,500 where we are providing the bookings.

Rahul Jain — Dolat Capital — Analyst

Sure. That’s it from my side. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you. We have a next question from the line of Rohit Bahirwani from Vijit Global Securities. Please go ahead.

Rohit Bahirwani — Vijit Global Securities — Analyst

Thank you for the opportunity. My question is we had applied for a license of payment aggregators with RBI payment. What is the status on that?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

That is still being done. We have received some observations. So we’ll let you know soon about this. But our revenue from the payment gateway as a PG has gone up. And if you see that — let me give you the exact figure. Total revenue from the iPay has been a total debt net revenue to IRCTC earnings and has been nearly, I think, INR11.5 crore in the last three months. And our total revenue from — which is contributing to the revenue also of the Company has also gone up by a good number of margins.

But till the time we were planning to open an aggregator, we had applied. We have received certain observations. Maybe we may have to do some changes in the Company itself to get that license as our entire business will be impacted.

Rohit Bahirwani — Vijit Global Securities — Analyst

So any dates on that by when we can expect that to be completed?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

We don’t know. We are applying to the third agency and people take one-year to get it. So we have just started in that after we got the changes. We have received certain observations. We may have to do certain changes. However, over this, in the first quarter, iPay contributed to INR16 crore in the first quarter. Second quarter, INR15 crore. In the first quarter, it was nearly INR20 crore. So total contribution to the revenue has been nearly INR51 crore. So by the end of this year, it will be nearly INR80 crore. And net profitability margin will be INR12 crore. [Foreign Speech] we are satisfied with the PG revenue until the time we get the license.

Rohit Bahirwani — Vijit Global Securities — Analyst

Okay. Thank you for answering my question.

Operator

Thank you. We’ll take a question from the line of Pugas Manoharan [Phonetic], an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Pugas Manoharan — — Analyst

Thanks for the opportunity, madam. Madam, like in the social media and in all the TVs, right? What we are hearing is the people are moving out left and right, right? So I just want to check on the other things that we have. Flight, madam, I see like all the sites are booked and the rates are huge. So how are we doing in flight ticket bookings and also what is that? How much revenue does it contribute to our ticketing with respect to hotels and flights?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

So far in the — put together in the — all the three quarters, we have been able to — we have done booking of INR100 crore. And the segment that we have booked is nearly, I think, INR14 lakhs or so. So bookings have gone up as compared — we have achieved the pre-COVID levels. But the — and the corporate ticketing also we have done well. If you ask me that net margins left with IRCTC, it is nearly I think INR14 crore. INR14 crore is the margins left with IRCTC. Although we have also increased our fees in this segment. We have now achieved that level, but the pricing is very high. And let’s see, that’s all for the good. But our booking in this segment is now on the incremental side.

Pugas Manoharan — — Analyst

With respect to competition, madam, say, for example, just giving a — throwing a names, redBus in case of bus bookings or EaseMyTrip in case of flight, right? How complicit we are? Are we like the lease pricing or we are at par with them? Like how are we placed there, madam, in terms of competition?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

That may not be an appropriate comparison I must say because they are not into the rail-based tourism. They are only in the train booking. We do mark tourism also. If you ask me the OTAs work, OTA has four types of work. One is the rail booking, another is the air booking, then is the bus booking, and then is the other cab, etc., booking. And the first is the tour packages. As far as the two segments are concerned, we are in the older segments. Bus Inventory, it is not my own inventory. If you ask to MakeMyTrip, they own redBus. If you ask — take Confirmtkt, they own — they have their own fleet of buses.

What we do, we have tied up for — in the case of a bus booking, we have tied up with the various state government. We are tied with the V Bus [Phonetic]. We are tied with — you are right. But also, we are getting inventory through them only. But we have done well in the bus. And nearly one our net margins without much effort and providing the last-mile connectivity as in INR1.1 crore we have earned. And the total revenue that we contributed was nearly, I think, INR42.64 crore — INR4.26 crore in the — from October in the last quarter.

So comparing myself with the MMP and that segment, the kind of a promotion they do if I start spending that on expansion, I may also get it. I think my balance sheet is not right. I will not comment on other.

Pugas Manoharan — — Analyst

Madam, is it like — last question, madam. So is it like anything that we can evaluate this through a market share say or total bookings, right, on the flights or whatever, right? And we think that we are. Is that like our market share is increasing that way you can see? Or that is also around assumption or long comparison?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

It is very different, not a very — I must say [Foreign Speech] compare with oranges. We are going in the wrong direction. Every OTA has its own strength, like MMT has a strength in the air, while the other Yatra has a strength in the hotel. So I have a sense in mark tourism. So that where I have a sense, where I’m more functionally capable, so we have started focusing on that in the mark tourism, and we are bringing more and more trains. And we are trying to get nearly INR250 crore as a revenue from that segment from the train movement.

Air booking is kind of — we are — OTA we provide. We need to grow. I don’t disagree with that. But at the same time, we have to see that all assets are looked into. And so far we are tied up — we are also going to revise our tender conditions and see what best we can do in this direction. But focusing only on the bus and air may not be appropriate because we are a mark tourism and we have to see the market first.

Pugas Manoharan — — Analyst

Okay, sounds good, madam. And the last question on catering, madam. We said actually before we are speaking to one of the food aggregators, right? We have our own food aggregator things that we are planning, right? Is that anything finalized or any update here, madam?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Yes, we are still working on that. We have started tying up with many of the B2C partners. Gradually, we are opening one by one. I mean, our ability is increasing. We are increasing the number of stations and the number of bookings. And the impact, we’ve also seen we have recently opened a booking along with the WhatsApp. That is only as of now one-way communication. Within 15 days, a two-way communication will also going to happen. So we are taking all steps so that our booking in this format gets increased.

Pugas Manoharan — — Analyst

Okay. All the best, madam. Thank you.

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We’ll take the last question from the line of Shivam Kumar, an individual investor. Please go ahead.

Shivam Kumar — — Analyst

Ma’am, my question is regarding the last quarter occupancy of IRCTC tour packages?

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Last quarter occupancy of tour packages?

Shivam Kumar — — Analyst

Yes, ma’am.

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

That’s been good. That is why the revenue has been good.

Shivam Kumar — — Analyst

Ma’am, how much occupancy? Suppose we have tour package for 100 people.

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

In air, we make a tour package of not more than 40. Otherwise, the rates of the air will increase. So generally, we are able to sell all the inventories. And our rail tour package, for example, from Mumbai is doing excellent. Vaishno Devi packages also are doing excellent.

Few packages do very, very good. Few packages where we don’t get good response, we don’t lose anything in that. At that time, we are not able to sell all the inventory first. There are days when the days are bad and the market is not conducive, we are not able to fill the entire inventory. But we don’t lose in the rail tour packages. If the money gets resolved in the circuit, we release that bus three days ahead so that the bus are released to the common public.

Shivam Kumar — — Analyst

Thank you, ma’am.

Operator

Thank you. I would now like to hand over the call to the management for closing comments. Over to you, ma’am.

Rajni Hasija — Chairman & Managing Director

Thank you very much to all the investors. You might have noticed that we have also declared a dividend which is — so for the higher dividend, interim dividend declared by IRCTC that is INR3.8 per share. And it is nearly 175% of the share capital. Hope that will bestow your confidence in IRCTC. The Company has just come out of the COVID. Things in the tourisms are getting improved. Our business lines are making — showing certain modulation, so is our earnings pattern.

But let me assure you on behalf of this Company that Company continues to be a very good option to invest in. And the returns on this Company are improving. And we are going to contribute — we are going — looking forward for a better Q4 and the entire financial year ahead. Wishing you all the best, and requesting all of you to bestow your confidence in IRCTC as you have been doing in the past. Thank you very much.

Operator

[Operator Closing Remarks]

Related Post