The Hindu : Business : Mahindra Holidays eyeing small property

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Friday, Jan 09, 2009
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Mahindra Holidays eyeing small property

Special Correspondent

To go in for securitisation of receivables to raise funds.

CHENNAI: With excess capacity slowly showing up in family holiday services business, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd. (MHRIL), a part of the infrastructure sector of the Mahindra Group, is looking at acquisition option.

Indicating this in an interaction with The Hindu, Ramesh Ramanathan, Managing Director of MHRIL, said, “it is time to look at acquisition option.” The company, he said, had acquired a couple of property — one in Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, and another at Thekkadi in Kerala — in 2008. “Many good deals are available in the market,” Mr. Ramanathan said. MHRIL, he said, would look at “small property with lot of lands” or “property with large rooms.” Stating that “over-capacity will start staring at us in a while,” Mr. Ramanathan said funds would not be a constraint for the company to go in for acquisition. In this context, he said all the property of the company were debt-free. He also indicated that MHRIL could go in for securitisation of receivables to raise funds to take care of any possible acquisitions. Mr. Ramanathan said the company bucked the trend and had recorded 88.5 per cent occupancy in December 2008 across its 30 property, compared to 84 per cent in the same month in the previous year. Coming as it did in the wake of terrorists’ attack in Mumbai, this was creditable, he said.

“The current month is okay. We expect February to be reasonably good. But we are a bit unsure about March,” he said. Things had indeed changed for family holiday business in the last four to five months, Mr. Ramanathan said. “Conversions are taking longer time (time to convert a potential client into an actual client).” The company, he said, was also moving into smaller cities and looking into newer segments, he added. ``Last year, our occupancy rate was 72 per cent. We expect this to be higher this year,” he said.

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