Mahindra Holidays' Q4'12 net down 7.3%

Leisure hospitality provider Mahindra Holidays and Resorts India Ltd (MHRIL) registered a 7.3% decline  (on stand-alone basis) in net profit after tax (PAT) for the quarter ended March 31, 2012. Part of the $14.4 billion Mahindra Group, MHRIL posted a net profit of Rs 37.23 crore in the fourth quarter of financial year 2012 (Q4'12) against Rs 40.18 crore in the same period last year (Q4'11).

On a consolidated basis, the company's PAT increased by 1.8% from Rs 102.76 crore in the financial year 2011 (FY'11) to Rs 104.64 crore in fiscal ended March 31, 2012.

Rajiv Sawhney, managing director, MHRIL, the company’s growth is in line with the expectations and is a result of aggressive investing in process, people and technology. He did not share details about capital expenditure (capex) earmarked for FY’13 or the development pipeline in terms of number of new resorts and guest rooms to be added to the network citing company policy on not making forward looking statements.

“We are strengthening our customer-centric efforts and have launched aN online booking facility on our website last year in November. With approximately 13% of all bookings being done online now, we expect the number to increase significantly in the next 12 months,” said Sawhney.

The company’s total income increased 19% to Rs 188 crore in Q4FY12 vis-a-vis Rs 165.78 crore in the same period last year. Its total expenses increased by 27% from Rs 111.67 crore in Q4’11 to Rs 142.13 crore in Q4’12.

Continuing with its expansion, the company increased its resort network to 42 from 35 in the previous financial year. With the addition of 485, its room inventory increased by 31% rooms taking the overall figure to 2,049 rooms in FY’12.

Three small resorts that were on a short lease were taken off the network. The company acquired 18,089 new members registering a 14% increase in membership base taking the total to 143,258 – the membership base in FY’11 was 125,169.

Arun Nanda, chairman, MHRIL, said the company is putting a lot of emphasis on strengthening their services, network and technology infrastructure. To this effect, 10 destinations were added to the network including Sikkim, Mussorie, Mahableshwar, Kumarakom, Jaisalmer, Kanatal, Goa and Rishikesh.