Are hotel owner-operator marriages becoming flings? Now Swissotel pulls out of Goa property

An edited version of this story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Monday, Sep 9, 2013.

With relationships between Indian hotel asset owners and international hotel operators getting sour, for various reasons, the Indian hospitality market is set to see an increase in the instances of such marriages hitting a rocky patch.

Emulating the split between Phoenix Mills and Shangri-La Hotels that happened last week, another foreign hotel operator has decided to call it quits.

This time it is Zurich-based Swiss hospitality chain Swissotel Hotels & Resorts which is pulling out of its five-star deluxe hotel at Calangute in Goa. The Goa property is owned by Bangalore-based Convention Hotels India Pvt Ltd (CHI).

Officials of both CHI and Swissotel could not be reached for a comment.

However, Swissotel’s website confirmed the development saying, as of September 9, 2013, Swissotel Hotels & Resorts will no longer manage Swissotel Goa. The hotel will be renamed and operated by the owner.

The international hotel chain -- Swissotel -- is owned by FRHI Holdings Limited, a leading global hotel company with 102 hotels and resorts worldwide under the Raffles, Fairmont and Swissôtel brands. The company also manages Fairmont and Raffles branded Residences, Estates and luxury private residence club properties.

Interestingly, Swissotel Goa was launched amidst great fanfare just six months ago i.e. March 2013 and, in most likelihood it is the shortest owner-operator marriage the Indian hospitality market has seen thus far. The fling between Phoenix Mills and Shangri-La Hotels had lasted nine months.

Convention Hotels is currently developing four hotels in the country with a combined guestroom inventory of 715 keys. The company’s development pipeline includes a 35-room tented resort is under development at Kabini (Bangalore), a 220-room Holiday Inn hotel in Goa to be managed by Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG), a 200-room Hilton Garden Inn to be managed by Hilton Worldwide and a 260-room Hyatt Place hotel in Bangalore that will be managed by Hyatt Hotels & Resorts.

Industry experts said the Indian hospitality market will see many more asset owner-hotel operator relationships turning sour, citing conflict of opinion (on business operations and expected returns on investments) as the key reason for the split.

Another possibility of a fall-out, industry sources said, will be between Shiva Satya Hotels which is developing a five-star hotel to be managed by IHG under its Crowne Plaza brand. The duo had signed a management agreement back in August 2008 and the hotel was to be operational in 2010. However, the project has got delayed significantly and there is no clarity on its completion timeline as yet.

Information Update:

Before launching under the Swissotel brand, the management contract for the Goa resort was signed with the InterContinental Hotel Group and was to be operated under the Holiday Inn Resort. However, Swissotel came in at the last moment and bagged the management contract.

As of now, this flagship hotel from the Bangalore-based Convention Hotels India Pvt Ltd (CHI) has been re-branded as North16Goa.

Hoteliers add over 800 guestrooms across India in two weeks

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Thursday, Sep 5, 2013.

The current financial environment may remain tough, but that has not deterred Indian hospitality industry – both Indian and international – from pushing ahead with new hotels. In all, approximately 827 new guestrooms were added in the organised hospitality sector in the last two weeks and a majority – approximately 60% – of them have come up in South India alone.

Some of the big names here include Indian Hotels Co (Taj Group), East India Hotels (Oberoi Group), Accor, Berggruen Hotels and the Panaromic Group.

While French hospitality major Accor opened a 131-room budget hotel under the ‘Formule1’ brand in Bangalore, IHCL from the Tata stable rolled out its 200-room upscale ‘The Gateway Hotel’ on the IT Expressway in Chennai. September thus far has seen three hotels being launched with a combined guestroom inventory of 496.

Earlier this week (September 2), the Oberoi Group threw open its 323-key five-star business hotel under the Trident brand in Hyderabad. Berggruen Hotels, promoted by US-based Berggruen Holdings, opened its first five-star hotel in Pune under the Keys Klub brand featuring 115 guestrooms while a 58-room premium hotel got christened United 21 in Hyderabad.

While it may appear as a sheer coincidence that almost half-a-dozen hotels have entered the Indian hospitality market at around the same time, experts said most of the projects have been under development for some time now. “Hotel chains ideally like to time their new launches and September being the shoulder month it makes for a sensible move. The Indian hospitality sector will enter the peak business season starting October going up to January/February and launching at this time will help them tap incremental business,” said Ashish Bharadia, senior consultant, Mahajan & Aibara Management Consultant.

There is unanimity that coming months will see more additions from the likes of Marriott, Starwood, Accor, Hyatt and IHCL.

For instance, Marriott International is set to open its account for its 297-room five-star deluxe JW Marriott hotel in Bangalore this month. Another 510-room JW Marriott hotel is slated to take off inside the DIAL Hospitality District in New Delhi. Marriott will also open a few Courtyard by Marriott branded hotels with a total inventory of 350-odd in cities like Bilaspur (104), Pune (180) and Agra (150), in addition to a 150-key Fairfield by Marriott in 2013-14.

Similarly, for Accor, it’ll be a 104-room Formule1 and 223-room Novotel hotel each in the Pune hospitality market this calendar year. Two more Novotel hotels, one each in Ahmedabad (180 room) and Goa (150 room) are likely to hit the market in 2013.

A 167-room Hyatt Regency is currently under construction in Ludhiana and projected to go live this year. Starwood Hotels and Resorts will take the curtain off a 323-room five-star hotel in Kolkata under the Westin brand and a 126-room Le Meridien hotel in Mahabaleshwar. Hilton Worldwide is in the process of opening DoubleTree by Hilton hotels in Jaipur (179), Bangalore (172), Pune (115) & Agra (102) and a Hilton Residences in Bangalore (243 rooms) in 2013.

Cement makers seen hiking prices in September

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Saturday, Aug 31, 2013.

Cement companies have decided to hike prices starting next month, according to some  dealers in the know. “It could be around Rs 50 per 50 kg bag in Mumbai,” said Peeyush H Shah, promoter, Shri Padmavati Enterprise, a Mumbai-based dealer.

The hike will be effective next week, he said, adding, “The increase, from what I understand, will be taken by all cement manufacturers”.

In a cement sector review on Friday, Mihir Jhaveri and Prateek Kumar, analysts with Religare Institutional Research, said that though some dealers have indicated about manufacturers pushing for hikes from September owing to input cost escalation and the rupee’s decline, the move is not sustainable given the weak demand scenario.

Based on their discussions with over 40 dealers across 30 Indian cities, the Religare analysts said cement prices took a sharp hit during August after remaining relatively stable during July. “Prices in regions have corrected in the range of Rs 10-50 per bag in both trade and non-trade segments. The north and central markets witnessed a sharp fall of as high as Rs 40-50 per bag for select brands. 

"In Andhra Pradesh, prices have corrected by Rs 60 per bag after sharp hikes of Rs 60-80 per bag in June. Other southern states have seen a milder decline of Rs 10-15 per bag. Declines in the western and eastern regions have been in the range of Rs 10-30 per bag,” the duo noted.

The decline was primarily led by increased supply due to the entry of new players, poor demand owing to a weak macro and shortage of materials (sand/brick), and good monsoons across most regions.

The current all-India trade segment average is pegged at Rs 280-285 per bag as compared to the estimated average of around Rs 290-295 per bag in the quarter ended June.

Cement prices in the non-trade segment were lower by Rs 10-20 per bag.
The decision to hike prices, industry experts feel, is certainly motivated by the fact that cement prices suffered significantly in July and August. And with input costs continuously on the rise, a price hike is the only way to stimulate demand and deal with the current slump in the market.

“Cement companies are expecting construction activity to increase considering the monsoon season is almost getting over, and are using this opportunity to bring prices back to the pre-monsoon levels,” said an analyst with a domestic brokerage.

Maintaining a cautious outlook on cement sector for the current quarter, the Religare analysts said that sluggish demand and weak pricing would likely keep profitability under pressure. Also, if prices fail to revive in September (with monsoons still prevailing in some regions), realisations are likely to be sharply lower again on a year-on-year basis, exasperated by last year’s high base due to delayed monsoons.

“With minimal benefits from lower international coal prices (owing to depreciation of Indian rupee), operating profit per ton (ebitda/t) of cement companies could see a quarter on quarter dip in the range of Rs 200-250 (depending on regions, but mid-caps likely to be hit more). The July-September quarter for the sector is also likely to remain muted, with sluggish volumes, weak pricing, cost pressures and a high base,” the analysts said.

A top official of a leading cement firm, however, denied any possibility of pan-India price hikes, saying it would more likely be a regional. “It’s very difficult to say if there will be a price hike in September. It is also the ‘Shraadh’ month and is not considered auspicious, so demand from the real estate sector will anyway be muted. As for festive season, I think there is still some time for that,” the official said.

Depreciating Indian rupee = 12% growth for domestic travel and tourism industry

My colleague Yuga Chaudhari co-authored this story appearing in DNA Money edition on Friday, Aug 30, 2013.

The past 10-15 days have turned out to be quite a surprise for Himmat Anand, founder, Tree of Life Resort and Spa in Jaipur. The 14 villas premium property has been receiving host of inquiries and bookings for the month of November and December, a phenomenon he’s not experienced in the past. “This never happened before because the domestic market usually reacts 2-3 weeks before the travel time,” said Anand.

The sentiment is pretty much the same among travel and tour operators in the country. In fact, experts are of the opinion that the domestic travel and tourism industry which has been growing exponentially in the past years despite economic slowdown is in for a big bounce this business season.

Ashwini Kakkar, executive vice chairman, Mercury Travels, attributed the impact of depreciating Indian rupee (INR) as a key reason for the increased optimism in the domestic travel market. “Domestic travel is set to benefit in a big way. The industry has been growing at 6% odd and it could certainly hit double digit this time around,” said Kakkar.

Anand agrees saying based on the current market scenario, growth in domestic tourism should be upwards of 12% if not more. He added, there is a shift in people’s mindset with a realisation that overseas travel will be challenging. As a result, they are planning and freezing their holidays across domestic destinations.

“In the near term I definitely see an increase in the of number of people choosing domestic travel over internatinal. In fact, a lot of bookings for our property have already come in for the first half of October. The increase in percentage terms this season will be anywhere between 8 and 10% year on year (yoy),” said Anand.

Echoing the sentiment are Regi Philip of travel company Cosmos Agencies and Jai Bhatia, chairman western region, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) who expect domestic travel to pick up this year during the holiday season.

In fact, Bhatia is of the opinion that people are also deferring their international travel plans as the INR continues to depreciate compared to euro and dollar. "Domestic travel is expected to get a boost this year as people may look at postponing their international travels," he said.

Industry experts are of the opinion that people are being very cautious and are generally scaling down all types of travel more so the international travel and are think twice before traveling abroad as everything has become expensive. According to Amrit Pandurangi, senior director, Deloitte in India, airlines are also not in a position to provide discounts as oil prices are going up. “International travel, in the absence of any serious airfare reduction, will see a reduction this year. Business travel overseas will also remain muted as companies are focusing on cutting costs," said Pandurangi.   

The general consensus this holiday season is that international travel will take a beating. Based on his interactions with the travel trade, Anand said, outbound tourism is seeing a drop in bookings to the rune of 20-30%. In fact, business to long-haul high-value (holiday packages ranging from Rs 80,000 to over Rs 1 lakh per person) destinations like US, UK and Europe has gone down probably more than 40% or so. Short-haul low-value destinations (holiday packages ranging between Rs 35,000 and Rs 50,000 per person) like Thailand and other Far East countries are seeing a drop of 10-15%.

However, outbound business to South Africa (SA) and Australia is still looking good as the Indian rupee (INR) hasn’t devalued so much (in these destinations) as compared to other currencies. In fact, just a few days back, SA started a very aggressive promotion for the Indian travellers highlighting the fact that the INR will still get them good value in SA.

As a result, bigger tour operators including the likes of Cox & Kings, Thomas Cook, Mercury Travels etc are proposing those destinations where the currency weakening has been of the similar order to the INR so that the impact is not felt by the traveller. “Destinations like Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey, Mexico have seen almost similar devaluation in their currency when compared to the INR. So tourists are open to shifting preferences from say the US or Europe to South Africa or for that matter Australia,” said Kakkar.

With bookings for outbound travel are yet to happen coupled with the volatility in the exchange rate people are taking the wait and watch approach expecting the INR to stabilise and then take a call on their international plans.

Starwood, Marriott in race for Phoenix's Mumbai hotel

This story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Thursday, Aug 29, 2013.

While Phoenix Mills, the promoters of erstwhile Shangri-La hotel in Mumbai, have renamed the property Palladium Hotel for now, it is understood that the asset owners are in talks with global hospitality majors for a new management contract.

Global hospitality majors, including Starwood, Marriott and Hyatt, are said to be engaged in hectic negotiations with the asset owner, Pallazzio Hotels and Leisure, a unit of Phoenix Mills.

The current operator, Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, handed over the hotel to Pallazzio on September 6, 2013. Earlier this week, Pallazzio and Shangri-La decided to mutually terminate the 20-year management contract after operating the luxury hotel for nine months.

Shishir Shrivastava, Group CEO and joint managing director, PML, did not respond to a query on the new international hotel operator/brand.

Industry sources said Starwood is a strong contender for the new management contract. Marriott and Hyatt are equally aggressive pursuing the matter, said one of the sources.

“These chains certainly are front-runners but then the hotel owners could be practically speaking to every possible operator,” the source said.

The current discussions with the asset owner are an indicator that a new hotel operator is yet to be finalised as against PML’s claims of already having someone on board.

Officials at both Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Marriott International said they were not in a position to comment.

Responding to a dna email, a Hyatt International spokesperson said, “The company is not in the race for the management contract at this time.”

There’s also some buzz that the hotel in question will join Starwood’s ‘Westin’ network. Interestingly, Pune-based Avinash Bhosle Group owns a 27% stake in PML’s Mumbai hotel and already has Starwood as the operator for its five-star hotel in Pune under the Westin brand. Its another upcoming property in Goa will also be managed by Starwood under the ‘W’ brand.

PML will have to take a final call on the new operator at the earliest.

This is because the Indian hospitality industry is set to enter the peak business season starting October and not having a hotel operator will make it very challenging for the asset owners.

Shangri-La, Phoenix Mills scrap management agreement for Mumbai hotel

An edited version of this story first appeared in DNA Money edition on Tuesday, Aug 27, 2013.

Nine months after operating the luxury hotel atop the Palladium Mall at Lower Parel in Mumbai, Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts is now calling it quits. Industry sources familiar with the development told dna that the hotel operator has decided to part ways with the Pallazzio Hotel and Leisure Ltd, which is the asset owning company and a subsidiary of BSE-listed Phoenix Mills Ltd (PML).

Shishir Shrivastava, Group CEO and joint managing director, PML, confirmed the separation though he denied that Shangri-La was walking out of the management agreement. “It is with mutual discussion that we have decided to terminate the contract. A new operator has been finalised already details of which will be made public shortly,” said Shrivastava. Being a mutual decision there will be no penalties levied for terminating the management contract with Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts which was for a period of 20 years.

Most of the hotel projects being developed by PML sit under a separate special purpose vehicles (SPVs). The Shangri-La Hotel, Mumbai is under Pallazzio Hotel and Leisure Ltd (a subsidiary of Phoenix Mills Ltd). The company has invested Rs 294.6 crore with a debt of Rs 652.6 crore. The overall project cost however is pegged at Rs 1,050 crore.

On what led the parting of ways between the two entities, industry sources said that a misalignment in their vision for the luxury hotel development was the key reason. This clearly is a case wherein the owner-operator did not get along a bit. The source said there was major disconnect between them for various reasons including significant delays and the hotel being partially developed in terms of total guestrooms and food and beverage facilities.

“The operator wasn’t very happy with the overall development. In fact, being a flagship hotel in Mumbai, Shangri-La also offered to buy out the asset owners and develop it as per their international standards but in vain. Finally, when nothing appeared to be working they decided to walk-out of the management agreement,” said the source.

The office of Farhat Jamal, area general manager (India, Sri Lanka and Maldives), Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, also confirmed the development saying Shangri-La will withdraw from the management of the hotel on September 6.

Shrivastava said the hotel will continue to operate as an uber luxury hotel with several enhancements, new banquet facilities and further the signature restaurant Mekong and Libai Bar will launch as planned by mid September.

The new brand will have to be announced in the shoulder month itself as the Indian hospitality sector will enter the peak business season starting October.

After significant delays of approximately three years, the Shangri-La Hotel, Mumbai began receiving guests in sometime in the third week of December last year (2012). The delay led to its overall development cost of Rs 1,050 crore overshoot the planned expenditure by Rs 400 crore. Of the total 390 guestrooms and suites approximately 221 guestrooms were operational as on June 30, 2013. By August end this inventory was to increase to 300 rooms and another 90 rooms were to be added in a phased manner depending on the market demand.

With an average occupancy of 40% for the April-June quarter, the hotel enjoyed an average room rate (ARR) of Rs 8,473 which could have been better given the luxury positioning of the hotel. Room revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 was Rs 5.9 crore versus Rs 5.8 crore for FY13.

Of the planned 11 restaurants, only three are operational while the balance were projected to be operational by September this year. Revenue from Banqueting and F&B in Q1FY14 stood at Rs 9.1 crore as compared to Rs 9.4 crore in four-odd months of FY13.