Wonderla Looks At Launching New Park In Chennai | NDTV Profit
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00:00Hello and welcome to NDTV Profit, you're watching Earnings Edge.
00:10This is Meeka Barve and with me is Agam Vicky.
00:12Now before we go on and speak to the managements, we do have lined up for you today.
00:16Agam, how do markets look like right now?
00:18Well, the markets at the moment are still quiet, where we are not looking at too much
00:22traction in general, but well, once again, the Nifty could likely make the beeline for
00:28the 25,000 mark.
00:29It's unlikely, but there's a small probability of something like that happening today.
00:36We are off days highs, but the Nifty is still in the green by around 0.3% and well, those
00:43are the updates as far as the markets are concerned, as far as the Nifty, Bank Nifty
00:47goes as well, a little bit of an outperformance coming in, even the broader market indices
00:52like the mid-cap and the small-cap indices continue to advance.
00:55So that's largely how things have fared.
00:59But with that, let's shift focus to earnings and we have Arun K. Chitlapillai, Managing
01:05Director at Vandala Holidays, who's joining us to take us through the quarter gone by
01:11and what we can expect going in.
01:13Arun, good afternoon.
01:15Thanks for taking the time out.
01:17Your own assessment of the quarter, what you make of it and what can we expect going forward?
01:24Yeah, so this last quarter for us was a bit challenging because of unprecedented heat
01:31wave situation that we had in many of our markets like Bangalore and Kochi.
01:37And that obviously prevented us getting good footfalls and also the election-related disruption.
01:45So there was a bunch of disruptions that happened during the first quarter and that is why we
01:49saw a degrowth in footfalls in Bangalore.
01:52Hyderabad is the only park which did well and of course, we also have a new park which
01:56we opened in Bhubaneswar, although we only got 38 days in this quarter from this new
02:01park, it still did quite well at almost 9.5 to 10 crores of revenue from 35 days.
02:08So I think overall, it's a mixed quarter, but I mean, I guess it's to be expected.
02:13Right.
02:14Mahima also joining in, I want to understand with respect to this new park that you just
02:19talked about, which is in Bhubaneswar.
02:22When do you expect break-even from this park?
02:26We are expecting break-even from this park within the first year itself, but maybe just
02:33about EBITDA positive level.
02:35At a park level, we are expecting this park to be positive from the fourth year onwards.
02:41So this is broadly what we are expecting.
02:46This year, we are expecting roughly about 4 lakh visitors, 4.5 lakh visitors in Bhubaneswar.
02:52Right.
02:53And Arun, I also want to understand that the average revenue per user grew approximately
02:583% YOY.
02:59Going forward, if you can give us an outlook for entire FY25 of ARPU versus the spend per
03:08head that you're expecting overall in FY25.
03:13So you can expect growth in ARPU roughly between like you saw 3% to about 5% to 6%.
03:203% to 6% is what we are expecting ARPU growth.
03:23SPH growth should be in double digits, maybe northwards of 10%.
03:28We are also expecting to claw back some of the footfalls that we lost in the Q1 and Q2
03:33and Q3.
03:34So let's wait and see how it pans out.
03:38If that happens, I think we should be able to show some decent numbers for the remainder
03:46of the year.
03:47Right.
03:48Arun, we got this side.
03:49I want to talk about Bengaluru where the average ticket price has not seen any change.
03:53Is there a particular reason for this?
03:55Yeah.
03:56So like I said, we were affected by the heat wave and we saw footfalls dropping very fast.
04:04And then we had to do a lot of marketing interventions in Bangalore and Kochi.
04:10So we had to drop our, we had a lot of offers running online and offline.
04:14So because of that, ARPU, especially ticket prices have gone down a little bit compared
04:20to before.
04:22But that's a tactical, you know, campaigns that we do as in we see footfall changes.
04:30What do you expect going forward now with, you know, the summer season over?
04:33Yeah, I think our industry is heavily dependent on weather conditions for, you know, for footfall.
04:40So like any kind of inclement weather, like right now we have, you know, heavy rainfall.
04:45So anything that's inclement definitely affects our footfall.
04:48So it's hard to predict how it's going to pan out.
04:51But if all things go well, I think we should be okay.
04:54Because we are still seeing strong demand for our parks, especially the newer parks
04:59like Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar, definitely we'll see good numbers going forward.
05:04Right.
05:05This is our inaugural year.
05:06Right.
05:07Right.
05:08Continue.
05:09Continue.
05:10Yeah, no, because this is our inaugural year, we are expecting good uptick in footfalls
05:14from Orissa and also from Hyderabad.
05:18These are the, these are the newest parks that we have.
05:21Right.
05:22And Arun, you're also constructing a new park in Chennai.
05:25If you can tell us what is the progress there?
05:29So we are expecting to open this new park.
05:32The fifth park of the group will be open in Chennai towards the end of 2025.
05:38So we are targeting December 25 for the opening of this new park.
05:43And Arun, when you talk about opportunities in terms of strategic geographies, you know,
05:48you have active discussions with other states.
05:51What's the strategy and outlook there?
05:54So we want to expand geographically to new cities, Tier 2 and Tier 1 cities.
06:01So we have different products for the Tier 2 and then a different product for Tier 1 cities.
06:06So we are looking at many more opportunities, for example, in Delhi, in Ahmedabad.
06:15We are also looking at Indore.
06:17We are looking at Mohali in Punjab.
06:20We are also looking at a few other places.
06:22So we are looking at Goa, etc.
06:24So a lot of places we are looking at, wherever we find the right fit in terms of real estate.
06:30And getting land for this project, it's not that easy.
06:35So getting the right fit in terms of market and also real estate is crucial for us.
06:42Right.
06:43Arun, so, you know, you've mentioned in one of your call calls that, you know,
06:47you're looking for opportunities for, you know, integrating your resorts with the parks.
06:52And you already have a resort attached to your Bangalore park right now,
06:57which runs at an occupancy of 55 percent this quarter, versus that of 69 percent of occupancy usually.
07:03So a two-part question.
07:05Any other parks that you're planning to integrate resorts with?
07:08One thing.
07:09And where do you see the occupancy levels overall in FY25 for the Bangalore resort?
07:16Integrated resort is something that we want to do in our mature parks.
07:20For example, we want to do that in Cochin and then Hyderabad.
07:24These are places where we could do resorts.
07:26We are, in fact, adding resort room to our resort in Bangalore right now,
07:31because we feel that for the demand that we're seeing, we are not having enough rooms.
07:36So we are expanding the resort by another 40 rooms, which should be ready by the end of the year.
07:41For the Bangalore resort, our occupancy has been lower this year.
07:44Again, owing to the heat wave and those kind of inclement weather conditions.
07:49But going forward, we do expect to have occupancy between 60 and 70 percent.
07:5560 to 70 percent occupancy.
07:57Arun, I also want to talk about your CAPEX.
08:00How much has been spent in FY24 so far, and what's the target for FY25 as a whole?
08:05And maybe if you could give us a break up on that.
08:09So we have some sustaining CAPEX in our existing parks going on,
08:16which we'll be spending roughly about 60 to 70 crores.
08:19Then on top of that, we'll be spending roughly about 180 crores in Chennai for the remainder of this year.
08:27The Chennai project for us is a 515 crore project.
08:31We have already invested about 140 crores.
08:35We'll be spending another 170, 180 crores this year.
08:40Okay, Arun, recently your board has approved fundraising as well.
08:46Give us some understanding as to what that fundraising will be used for.
08:53So we are looking to expand in new geographies, like I said, building new amusement parks and resorts.
09:00So we have at least two or three projects lined up.
09:03And so hence we are looking at raising some funds so that we can execute these projects on time.
09:11Yeah, and Arun, before I let you go, just one last question.
09:15I want to maybe discuss more on the newer parks, which is the parks at Bhubaneswar and Chennai.
09:20What's the outlook for these two parks specifically?
09:23You'll see a full Q2 for these two parks coming up.
09:29Let me correct you there, we only have one park or new park that's open.
09:33Chennai is opening next year.
09:34Bhubaneswar, yes, this will be our first year.
09:39But because it's our first year, again, we don't know how to give guidance on something that's a new park.
09:45We are expecting roughly about 4 to 4.5 lakh visitors in our first year.
09:51Quarter analysis will be difficult because it's a new geography for us.
09:56Right. And Arun, you know, in FY24, roughly, you did a revenue of approximately 483 crores.
10:02What is the outlook for top line and bottom line for FY25?
10:08It's hard to, again, put a number on this.
10:10We are expecting to do better than last year, obviously.
10:13But we could see some issue.
10:15We may see some degrowth in terms of margins for this year because we have new projects under construction.
10:22Other than that, I think we are OK. We should be able to do slightly better than last year.
10:26That's what we are gunning for.
10:29Well, thank you, Arun, so much for joining us and giving us an outlook on the FY24 as a whole.
10:34And we wish you all the best.
10:36Thank you so much.
10:38Well, that was the management of Vandala Holidays for you.
10:41But, you know, we move on and put focus for the Olympics.
10:44Another medal for India.
10:46Manu Bhaker and Sarjot Singh win the bronze in the 10-meter air pistol mixed team shooting against South Korea.
10:54Now, with this, Manu Bhaker is crowned as the first Indian athlete to win two medals in the same Olympics editions.
11:01Remember, on Sunday, Manu scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman shooter to win a medal at the Olympics.
11:09Whereas Sarjot, competing in the men's event, missed out on a podium finish.
11:17Well, viewers, on that note, it's time to slip into a short break, but do stay tuned.
11:20We have lots more lined up on the other side.