Juniper Hotels Ltd (NSE: JUNIPER) Q3 2025 Earnings Call dated Feb. 11, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Varun Saraf — Chief Executive Officer
Tarun Jaitly — Chief Financial Officer
Mammen — Chief Operating Officer
Analysts:
Abhay Khaitan — Analyst
Lokesh Manik — Analyst
Saurabh Bansal — Analyst
Aman Goyal — Analyst
Sugandhi — Analyst
Presentation:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Q3FY25 earnings conference call hosted by Juniper Hotels Limited. 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. Should you need assistance during this conference, please signal an operator by pressing Star and then zero on your touch tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. This conference call and this presentation prepared by Juniper Hotels Limited has been solely prepared for. Information purposes and does not constitute a sale offer or any invitation to subscribe for or purchase of equity shares. The information and data which forms the basis of this presentation has been derived from sources that the Company considers to be reliable. Certain statements disclosed in this presentation or that may be disclosed over this call may relate to companies growth prospects that are forward looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws and regulations.These forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance as they are subject to known and unknown risks which are beyond the control of the Company. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Varun Saraf, CEO from Juniper Hotels Ltd. Thank you. And over to you Mr. Saraf.
Varun Saraf — Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us on our earnings call. I would like to start by informing everyone that Juniper Hotels has received a letter of intent from Saraf Hotels regarding exercising of their ROFO option. This letter of intent has been tabled before the Board and the Board has formed the committee to evaluate this opportunity.
The two hotels under acquisition are Hyatt Regency Mumbai and Hyatt Regency Chennai. These potential value accretive acquisitions will add approximately 750 keys to the Juniper portfolio and will have a immediate impact on the Company’s performance. One of the assets is already operational and the other one is expected to be operational by the end of the current calendar year.
The management is currently exploring scenarios on how to integrate these assets within the Juniper portfolio in the most efficient manner. We have onboarded industry experts and consultants to advise us regarding the structuring of these acquisitions. Details about the structure, cost and timelines will be disclosed in due course.
To further update you on our Bangalore acquisition, we have taken over the possession of the asset. Currently a team of 20 people have been deployed on site led by our project head. The team has initiated interior work and MVP work streams in the rooms and the public area. We have onboarded the original designers and contractors to complete the hotel. The timeline for opening the Bangalore Hotel would be the end of the current calendar year.
This acquisition in Bangalore will add approximately 240 rooms to our existing portfolio of rooms. A second acquisition has been also. We have also received board approval for the acquisition of a Kaziranga leasehold lands to develop a five star luxury hotel close to the national park. It is proposed to be 120 room luxury resort to be operated by Hyatt. Currently the designing and planning is underway and we hope to start. Construction in Q3 of the current calendar year. The hotel will be operational by 2029 and we expect estimated capex of approximately 100 crore. With two confirmed hotels and two potential acquisitions on the table. I’m proud to say in the first year of the listing of Juniper Hotels we have visibility on adding approximately 1100 rooms and four hotels to our existing portfolio. Further, Grand Hyatt Mumbai has completed all renovation work. What we had started pre IPO about 18 months ago is now complete. The showroom, the new restaurant Cellini, the bar and 400 room renovation for which has all been completed and the hotel is fully operational with all revenue streams kicking in. With this I would like to give you to hand over to Tarun Jetty our CFO to to give an overview on the numbers.
Tarun Jaitly — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you Arun. On the performance side, since the presentation is already there with everybody, I’ll just stick to some of the key highlights for the quarter Q3 FY25 saw us achieving the highest income. Revenue at 261 crore is up 17% sequentially primarily driven by top performance of Bandaz and Grand Hyatt arrs.
Both the assets have actually outperformed the comset peer comset as far as the ARR performance is concerned year to date. The strong ARR performance continues in Jan where at Grand Hyatt and Andaz both the assets are seeing between 10 to 12% y o y increase in ARR even in January 25th. Another important facet is that we achieved the highest EBITDA of 101 crore in third quarter which is a 30 sequential growth.
Importantly EBITDA margin has improved to 39% from 33% in Q2 and we are on track to achieve a normative EBITDA levels of around 42 43% at the corporate level. Grand Hyatt. You know the operating profit of Grand Hyatt at the operating level has increased in Jan from 43% to upwards of 50% and this is an important factor which underlines the fact that the Grand Hyatt is achieving stabilization and the performance of Grand Hyatt now going forward will contribute to the performance of overall company as we move forward in the next few quarters. Strong top line and EBITDA growth has led to a PPT of 43.5 crores which is 118% sequential growth in this quarter. There is 11 crore notional reversal of the. GTA net of which BPAT is 32.5 crores which is significantly above the last quarter. With that I’d like to hand over to Mr. Mamin who is the CEO to give you a brief business overview and then I will step back in.
Mammen — Chief Operating Officer
Good afternoon. Q3 25 has been a strong quarter marked by the full operational return of grandite Mumbai since December 24 following the successful completion of refurbishment across rooms the Grand Club and the Grand Showroom.
The Grand Showroom launch has been a resounding success setting a new benchmark for premium event space in the city. It’s widely embraced as the preferred venue for high end social and corporate events. Andaz delivered exceptional performance achieving a 25% year on year increase in Revpar, outpacing competition at a 19% growth compared to the previous year. ADR Nanda surged 29% and 28% on year on year growth based on strong market performance contract renegotiations on race which has been the strategy of the portfolio.
The total revenue for the quarter stands at 261 which is a sequential growth of 18%. ADR grew sequentially at 19% and RevPAR at 25%. The outlook for the next few quarters continues to be robust driven by strong corporate demand, large scale corporate demands and high profile social gatherings across the portfolio. We will possibly outperform comset based on the fact that Grand Ice Mumbai has returned to stabilization.
IT business mix is another focus area across the group and a sharper focus on reviving our FNB across node debts. Over to you tarun.
Tarun Jaitly — Chief Financial Officer
Thank you Mr. Mamin. Another important factor that I want to share is that our balance sheet strength remains very strong. Our debt position, the net debt position to EBITDA at 1.5x net debt of 540 crores as of December quarter 3. We have a significant headroom for growth capital to fund the proposed acquisitions.
As Varunj touched upon in the earlier part of the speech, balance sheet ratios, whether on the working capital side or the gearing side remains fairly healthy. And with that I would like to conclude the presentation and throw the floor open to questions.
Operator
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 touchtone telephone. If. Wish to withdraw yourself from the question queue. You may press star and two participants are requested to please use handsets while asking a question.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. We have the first question from the line of Abhay Ketan from Axis Capital. Please go ahead.
Abhay Khaitan
Yeah. Hi. Hi Varun and thank you for the opportunity. So my, my first question is actually as two parts. So firstly on the for the luxury hotels. So in the presentation you have mentioned The ARR growth is 14 yoy. And now that you have mentioned that for Andaz the ref per growth is 25. So just wanted to understand the ARR growth between Andaz Delhi and and Grand Hat Mumbai, how has it fared between the two hotels?
And for in particularly Andaz, I wanted to understand if you have taken a high double digit growth there, how much do you think it can sustain going forward.
Varun Saraf
So look, you know, as I said there are two parameters that I would like to share with you that on an ARR basis both Grand Hyatt and Andaz have outperformed the concept peer concept. So just to share the specific numbers and I’m giving you YCG numbers grand I grouped 8.4% version with a comp set of 6.1 and Amdaz 19.1% vis a vis 4.3. And this is when I say YTD, I’m talking about the December month right up to December month.
And the trajectory continues in Jan as I said in January. And to give you specific numbers on top of CRR growth which we saw till December, Grand Hyatt has seen a 12% YoY variance in ARR positive and and 10% ARR growth in Jan. So that trajectory continues and we believe with the more fresher products in Grand Hyatt and also you know, improve the, you know, focus on improving, you know, the contribution of transient group.
We should see outperformance continue on the ARR side for Juniper from these two assets.
Abhay Khaitan
Understood. So for Grand Hyatt Mumbai, given the renovations, are you expecting a higher ARR growth going forward?
Varun Saraf
That is right. That’s what I said. You know there are two factors, right? One is a fresher product and second is the focus on transient and groups. So these would be the two factors which will enable us to do better than the comp set and continue to do so going forward. Another important thing which I want to share just to cap up this is, you know, as I shared earlier in my earlier part. In Jan, the operating performance at the operating level, the operating EBITDA of Grant hat increased from 43% to 50%. This basically underlines the fact that Grant Hat is getting back into normalcy and being the mothership which is, you know, 50% of the corporate Ebitda came from Grand Hyatt. This will be a significant positive influencer for our EBITDA going forward as well. To further add to that, you asked the question on Handaz and whether we’ll be able to sustain that. I believe that Q4 will be very strong and that will continue going forward as well. The growth may not be at the same level, but we will definitely be able to sustain the current revpar and head in a positive direction.
Abhay Khaitan
Got it. Thank you. That was helpful. I also wanted to understand about other upscale and upper upscale hotels as well. So for them I see the ARR has actually declined YoY in the third quarter. So any particular reason? Is it because any particular hotel that we are seeing or is it overall an industry trend?
Because even in the industry data we have been seeing that non metro cities have actually done worse than metros. So is that more on that light or is there any particular asset that has underperformed?
Varun Saraf
So on the upper upscale, you know, the only asset which you see is Ahmedabad. And that was also because, you know, last year comparative period there was, there was, you know, even specific, you know, ARR increase. So it’s a high base effect that you saw in Ahmedabad.
But again I would say that for, you know, Ahmedabad is operating today at 98% occupancy for the past two consecutive months. So you know, this is on additional capacity. The room additions that we had done, you know, that’s got fully absorbed and it’s, you know, operating at significant, you know, occupancy levels.
And we believe that, you know, given the strength in the micro market in Ahmedabad, you know, the air out will continue to hold firm. So we do not see a decline in the non metro cities in the upper upscale in terms of rate. I think the rates will hold and only increase.
Abhay Khaitan
Okay, thank you. So yeah, my last question is on the, on the EBITDA margin. So we have seen for the quarter that it has declined to 37%. But I guess this includes the renovation cost that happened in Grand Hyatt Mumbai as. But once that is done, what is the ideal consolidated EBITDA margin that you are looking at and what will be the driver of that?
Tarun Jaitly
So look, I said, you know, I already shared that with you, right? I mean in Q3 there was roughly around 140 rooms which are out for almost 40 days in this quarter in Grand Hyatt. That is the impact which was there in 3Q. Despite that, we kind of held the EBITDA at 100 and 2 crores and the EBITDA margin has. Has increased by, you know, from 33 to 39%. We are on track to achieve 40 to 43% EBITDA. What will drive it? As I said in Jan, Grant Hyatt which was at 43% has gone up to 50 plus at the asset level. You know, Delhi is already operating at 50%. So this would be the key contributor to margin improvement over the next few quarters.
Abhay Khaitan
Okay, thank you. I’ll get back to that. Thank you for this.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Lokesh Manik from Vallum Capital. Please go ahead.
Lokesh Manik
Yeah. Hi, good afternoon to the team. The first question was on the non luxury side of the portfolio. So when you say that the EBITDA is, you know, 50% is contributed by Grand Ayat, then the rest 50% comes from non Grand Ayat hotels. Are they under indexed to the parent company where the margins in my estimation would come somewhere around 25% versus grand IR is coming at 50%. So any steps we are taking out there to bring that up to the console level or the COMSEC level of 40% EBITDA margin.
Varun Saraf
Hi Lokesh, if I understood your question, you said that normally for smaller size hotels you’ve seen a bid at around 20s or mid 20s. Is that what you. If I want to. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay. So for us, you know, traditionally and this is not just for this quarter, you know, we are fairly efficient from the perspective of the EBITDA that we get from our assets that we own, even the smaller assets.
For instance, if I were to give you an example in quarter three, the asset level EBITDA for an asset like humpy would be 46% while in the INR, it’s a smaller contribution that much smaller assets than Grand Hyatt. But as a percentage it’s 46% EBITDA at the asset level. So as far as EBITDA is concerned on these smaller assets, we obviously are doing much better than what, what other industry sector peers are able to achieve.
Lokesh Manik
Understood, understood. My second question was on the new asset acquisition in Assam Property there we are planning 116 rooms and you know, as per past commentary, you know, you mentioned that any asset you acquired you, you would want, you know, big box assets, at least 300 keys, you know, and this is 116. So any reason for deviation from that strategy for Assam?
Varun Saraf
Sure. So our focus still remains on big box assets. But when we actually get an opportunity. In niche segments, we will also continue to explore those. For example, so Assam government has come up with a scheme to promote the national park. At the end of the day we’re in the tourism space. This luxury asset of 120 rooms will help in the development of the much needed infrastructure to promote tourism in that sector. If you came through the recent budget right, the government is promoting various destinations. So we are aligned with the India growth story. Our business hotels will be our focus. But when actually value accretive opportunities for development comes in, when we can integrate with the India growth story, we would also be exploring those. I believe this 120 room hotel in Kaziranga will be the first branded hotel there. It will open up the northeast for future tourism development as well. And I think it would be a good addition to our portfolio.
Lokesh Manik
Fair enough. Do you have space to expand if required in the future?
Varun Saraf
The site is actually. No, the land is big but we actually going to build 120. If opportunity presents, yes, we will expand but currently we do not see that requirement coming up immediately.
Lokesh Manik
Fair enough. That’s all from my side. Thank you so much.
Operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sourabh Bansal from Starf Invest. Please go ahead.
Saurabh Bansal
Yes. Hi, good afternoon and thank you for taking the question. I have two questions on the roof of intimation which has been given. Question one, is there a timeline by which the company plans to take a decision or a final call on this? Also because is there any deadline this has been given in the by the promoters by which the company needs to take a call. So that is question one please.
Varun Saraf
So on the timeline, as I said, the board has created a committee. The committee will start the evaluation process we hope by before the end of the current financial year. We should have some clarity on this. That’s the timeline.
Saurabh Bansal
All right. Is there any deadline this has been given in the ROFO by which the company needs to take a call?
Varun Saraf
There is no deadline as such which has been given in the ROFO letter. But as you’re aware the promoters are the ones who are promoters of Juniper are the ones who have exercised this ROFO option and we do have some control on that side in terms of the timeline.
Tarun Jaitly
So I’ll just add to what Varun is saying. Hi Tarun here. This row of four was discussed at the board and the board directed us the management to constitute subcommittee and the intent of that is to take it in a speedy manner and expedition. Viciously and revert back on the assessment of and reply back to the.
Saurabh Bansal
Got it. Got it. All right. And the second part is that how would you be looking at valuing these assets? For example, in the previous quarter I’ve already highlighted that it’s mostly going to be a non cash transaction. So what would be the thought process in terms of valuing these assets? Will it be on an nav basis, book value basis, replacement cost models, any direction or any indication that you could give?
Varun Saraf
Yes, Sourabh. So as we discussed in the past is that this is a process. We have taken a few steps already and I would say that, you know this ROFO invocation letter is a major milestone. Constitution of the subcommittee is a major milestone in that entire journey. You know the. As for the direction to the management, we have to evaluate the most optimal manner to get this.
In which we are in the process of. You know, there are options in which we can get this integrated into Juniper. Most likely could be a cash swap. Sorry, a share swap.
Saurabh Bansal
Share swap. All right, thank you so much. Thank you. That’s it from my side.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask questions you may please press star and one on your touch tone telephones participants to ask a question you may press star and 1. We have the next question from the line of Abhay Ketan from Access Capital. Please go ahead.
Abhay Khaitan
Yeah, hi. Thanks. And so one more question. So my question is on, on the Kaziranga project. So basically the, the circular mentions that this is more of a PPP project. So just wanted to understand whether this entire hotel will be 100% held by Juniper or is there some other government stake as well? And secondly on the, on the 100 crore capex that you have been talking about. So what, what will be the split of this capex?
How much of this will be spent in the next two, three years and how much in the end?
Varun Saraf
Sure. So this is not a PPP project. This is a leasehold land which we have taken for 99 years. So it is 100% owned by us. The lease belongs to Juniper Hotels. The second part in terms of capex, the capex will be spread over three years. We do intend to start construction in September of this year. So it’s in September 2025. It’s a three year project, construction three to three and a half years. The initial design phase will be for about six to nine months. Which will require very, very minimal investment. Once the full swing construction starts, the funds will be used in a proportional manner so it would be spread across the three and a half years starting September.
Saurabh Bansal
Got it. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Participants, to ask a question, you may press star and 1. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask questions, you May, please press star and 1. We have the next question from the line of Sourabh Bansal from Starf Invest. Please go ahead.
Saurabh Bansal
Yes. Hi. Thank you for taking one more question. Just one simple question. What is the kind of thought behind the management when they look at setting up a new project in terms of the IRR that the company wants to generate on that?
Varun Saraf
So we usually try and target high teens. So one of our criteria is the land cost needs to be within a certain limit here at least. If you’re referring to the Kaziranga acquisition, it is. The land cost is very nominal and the opportunity that presents itself will be very valuable for the company.
Saurabh Bansal
All right. All right. Also just one more thing. Will there be a swap, let’s say a non cash swap for both of the possible ROFO assets under consideration or will it be a case to case basis as to a cash and a non cash transaction?
Varun Saraf
So most likely both the assets will come in in a share swap.
Saurabh Bansal
All right. Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press star and 1. If you wish to ask questions, we have the next question from the line of Aman Goyal from Access Securities. Please go ahead.
Aman Goyal
Thank you. Sir. Sir, my question is related to, related to outlook on the corporate mice events. Do you see any slowness in the in this segment? I mean, there is a sluggish growth in the economy. And do you see any lagging on this part?
Varun Saraf
No. As I mentioned in my speech, we see a robust demand driver for the next two to three quarters. That’s the indication.
Aman Goyal
Okay, thank you.
Operator
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. You may press star and 1. If you wish to ask questions, we have the next question from the line of Sugandhi from FedEx securities. Please go ahead.
Sugandhi
Yes, hi. Congratulations on the great results. My question is with regard to the ROFO assets. Again, could you give us an idea about, you know, if these are going to go through, what kind of net debt to equity we are looking at? You know, I mean, just trying to get an idea of how much leverage we have in these assets.
Varun Saraf
So, you know, if you look at both the companies, you know, on one of them which is already operational, the debt level when it will come in would be from a net debt perspective, it would not carry any net debt. On the second one, we could look at 1x to the expected EBITDA of debt that would come in along with that asset.
But from a juniper standpoint, with both the assets coming in, we would still be within the limits of net debt to EBITDA that we’ve set for ourselves on a sustainable basis of roughly around 2.5x. You know, on a sustainable basis, I think, you know, with those two assets coming in, we would still be around there.
Sugandhi
Sure. Thank you. And what, you know, could you give us an idea of how long it would take for, you know, the, for you to bring the second asset up to operational levels, you know, in terms of number of months or the amount of. I’m not sure if you can share this amount of expenditure it could entail in terms of time.And just.
Varun Saraf
So you know, we are expecting, as per the current estimates, the, you know, the way I understand it, the work stream to get that asset operational is already underway. Significant amount of work has already been done. Our estimates are that the Mumbai asset should become operational by the end of this calendar year and should start contributing as we get into FY26.
I would also like to take this opportunity to extend a formal invite to anybody who is interested in visiting that hotel. Our IR team can organize a visit and communicate a day and coordinate and take your convenience and coordinate a time for the visit to the asset in Mumbai.
Sugandhi
Thank you so much. The other asset. Any numbers you can share on. You know, capacity, utilization.
Varun Saraf
Sorry,
Sugandhi
The occupancy levels of the Chennai asset.
Varun Saraf
So just give us a second. Chennai today would be upwards of 78 to 80% occupancy. And you know we expect significant occupancy level in the asset in Mumbai once it becomes operational.
Sugandhi
Thank you, sir. That’s a comment.
Operator
Thank you. Participants, you may press Star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Aman Goyal from Access Securities. Please go ahead.
Aman Goyal
Sir, my question is related to Grand Showroom. So what is the reported revenue for this question? And what is the withdrawal margin for the showroom?
Varun Saraf
Right. As I mentioned to you, the showroom is a very premium space. And you know we are targeted upwards of 30 crores for the year. And we seem to be well on track in terms of the kind of profile and kind of rates that we are able to drive. It’s a process but we’re pretty confident we’ll get there.
Aman Goyal
And sir, what about subsidiary chpl? What is the reported revenue and operated margin for the subsidiary? Like for the 9 months or for this quarters?
Varun Saraf
So CHPL should be roughly around 2425 crores of revenue. I’ll give the exact number. And you know if you were to look at again an asset ebitda I will share that. You know, Lucknow was at around 46% as already stated. Hampi was at 46% and Rifur at around 36%. EBITDA at the asset level in total.
Aman Goyal
What about Ahmedabad?
Varun Saraf
Sorry, Ahmedabad does not come into chartered. Ahmedabad is within Juniper. So you asked. You said for Q3, right? Yes. These are Q3 numbers. Aman.
Operator
Does that answer your question? Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any further questions you may press Star and one to join the question queue. Participants who have questions may press Star and one. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press Star and one to ask a question.
Varun Saraf
So I think since, you know, there are no further questions, I would just answer the specific number that was asked on Chartered and then we could, you know, end the call. The EBITDA for chartered for Q3 is roughly 14 crores. And the top line gross, top line including the Chartered Hampdri asset is 37 crores for the quarter three.
Operator
Thank you. As we have no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Tarun Jaitley, CFO. Closing comments over to you sir.
Tarun Jaitly
Thank you everybody for taking time out to coming onto this call. As I said, you know, there’s an invitation we would like to extend to everyone. If anybody is interested in seeing and visiting the Mumbai Hotel asset. And if there are any following queries, feel free to reach out to us. Thank you again for taking time. Have a nice day.
Operator
Thank you. On behalf of Juniper Hotels Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you all for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.