Investors of Indian hotels to receive a warm stay

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April 7, 2022

With covid cases diminishing and mobility restrictions lifted, the hospitality industry, significantly harmed during the pandemic, is ready for a strong recovery. The resumption of scheduled commercial international flights, as well as a predicted increase in business travel as firms organize more offline meetings and conferences, are reasons that are likely to enhance demand.

The stock market reflects this optimism in the hotel industry. For example, the Indian Hotels Co. Ltd saw its stock hit a 52-week high on the NSE on Wednesday.

There is also an unmet leisure and wedding demand resulting from the Omicron coronavirus strain, which forced many such plans to be postponed.

“According to the India Hospitality Industry Overview 2021 by HVS Anarock, industry level occupancies are expected to touch pre-covid levels of 66% in CY22E/FY23E and reach 70% in CY24E,” said analysts at ICICI Securities in a report on April 6.

Due to a lack of significant supply addition in the last two years, coupled with strong demand, pricing power has increased. As a result, in FY23E, the average room rate is expected to return to pre-covid levels.

It also benefits Indian Hotels that the business recently funded 2,000 crores through a qualified institutional placement issue completed on March 25. This signifies that the balance sheet is debt-free.

The restrictions enforced to contain the spread of coronavirus over the last two years have harmed Indian Hotels’ cash flows, resulting in a 0.9x consolidated net debt to equity ratio in H1FY22, up from 0.4x in FY20. As a result, the free cash flow generated might be used to deal with anticipated covid wave interruptions or to boost operations.

On the back of bids to lower fixed costs and staff-to-room ratio, ICICI Securities forecasts Ebitda margins to climb to 29% in FY23E from 22% in FY20. But, even yet, considerable margin pressures exist.

“Sharp rise in margin is likely to be curbed by wage inflation. Many employees were let go in the past two years as covid impacted operations of the sector. As demand recoups, the workforce has to be increased which means there will be additional costs involved in bringing back the employees and training them,” said Vikas Ahuja, an analyst at Antique Stock Broking.

The possibility of demand not returning to predicted levels and a resurgence of covid cases could depress attitudes. Moreover, given that Indian Hotels’ stock is trading near all-time highs, sharp near-term upsides may be capped.

IndiQube receives $30mn from promoters & WestBridge Capital

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April 6, 2022

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IndiQube, a flexible workspace provider, has raised $30 million in funding from its promoters, WestBridge Capital, and angel investor Ashish Gupta. The promoters have put up $17 million out of $30 million.

It plans to use the funds to double its commercial real estate footprint across India, expand into Tier-II cities, and improve technology integration.

Rishi Das, the co-founder of the company, said, “Over the next two years, we plan to more than double our PAN India footprint to over 10 million sq ft, venture into 15+ Tier II cities and further ramp up technology integration, creating a consistent experience for our clients.”

It has expanded into Coimbatore, signing over 1 lakh sq ft of space.

“We had an amazing year adding 100+ clients to our portfolio with over 1.2 million sq ft in incremental signups,” said Meghna Agarwal, co-founder.

The company, founded in 2015, already has over 4.5 million sq ft of office space split among 60+ locations in eight cities.

Agritech startup TraceX bags $1mn in pre-series A funding

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April 6, 2022

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Agritech startup TraceX Technologies has raised $ 1 million (around 7.5 crores) in a pre-series A round. The NABVENTURES fund, which is funded by Nabbed, is leading the funding.

Paipal Ventures, an early-stage family office investment fund, and angel investor Sunil Kumar were also participants in the pre-series capital round.

TraceX in a statement said, “The newly raised capital will be used towards scaling up operations across geographies in India and in international markets, enhancing the technology platform, foraying into other value chains and for building high performance teams across functions.”

TraceX is a next-generation digital agriculture platform powered by a blockchain-based traceability platform that improves supply chain visibility, allowing businesses to develop trust and optimize long-term value.

TraceX’s blockchain-enabled proprietary platform digitizes the supply chain from beginning to end. All supply chain agents/players can add, view, and exchange data in real-time. The data collected acts as a single source of truth that cannot be altered or tampered with. Every user should be able to draw verifiable insights that promote transparency and traceability at all times.

Food, personal care, mobile, e-commerce are top most consumed categories post-pandemic: Study

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April 6, 2022

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The top five most-consumed categories for post-pandemic consumers include food, personal care, mobile phones, e-commerce, and hair care.

OTT is ranked 11th among the 29 most popular categories, followed by retail (19th), apparel and footwear (28th), and tobacco (29th).

While numerous incumbent brands struggled in the post-pandemic disruptive environment, the study showed the growth of certain significant digital-first businesses that were able to quickly adjust to changing dynamics.

With digital being the primary channel, millennials have emerged as major brand influencers. A ‘BrandXcel’ study conducted by Market Xcel, a research and insights firm, also found that with ‘super apps’ that sell a wide variety of goods and services, the concept of brand loyalty underwent a sea change.

Food, personal care, mobile phones, e-commerce, and automobiles were deemed to have high relevance and population size, according to the study. These are the categories with the most touch points in daily consumer life, and customers can choose from a variety of brands in these categories. As a result, this is a big, competitive market. These categories include a number of top-100 brands.

The majority of beverage brands were placed in the next category. These brands, too, have a lot of touch points in the daily lives of their customers. The fraction of consumers who believe they have a good impact on their life, on the other hand, is lower. In this market, there are far too many companies competing for a limited amount of demand.

Fintech has evolved as a category that must grow its customer relevance, necessitating the need for brands in this category to increase their resonance and connect. IT and electronics, as well as BFSI, must re-orient their offerings in order to remain relevant, as well as considerably refresh their offerings.

Alliance Group to launch projects in Bengaluru, Chennai & Hyderabad

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April 5, 2022

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Alliance Group, a real estate developer, plans to launch projects in Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad in the current fiscal year, totalling around 25 million sq ft and costing Rs 8,600 crore.

The company reported sales of Rs 2,290 crore for 2021-22, with 3,686 homes sold, with the residential segment accounting for most of the sales.

“2021-22 was a remarkable year in our journey. In spite of the Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to cross many major milestones in the industry,” said Manoj Namburu, chairman of Alliance Group and Urbanrise.

Apart from extending its commercial reach, the company is in talks with institutional funds for a warehouse platform space.

“Financial discipline is our organisation’s DNA and this is the strength we use to leverage large-scale investments in real estate across South India. It is this financial discipline that draws and attracts world’s best financial institutions to invest in our organisation,” said Namburu.

Kotak Realty Fund has invested around Rs 800 crore in the developer’s five projects in Chennai and Hyderabad.

The company currently has 20,000 homes under construction and expects to build over 50,000 units over the next three years.

Anarock buys coworking space provider myHQ

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April 5, 2022

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Anarock Group, a property advisory firm, announced that it had acquired myHQ, a co-working platform, to expand its flexible workspace portfolio.

Even after the buyout, myHQ will maintain its distinct identity and independence. Utkarsh Kawatra and Vinayak Agarawal, both IIT-Delhi graduates who co-founded the startup in 2016, will continue to serve as founding partners.

myHQ is a flexi-workspace platform that caters to the needs of enterprises and individuals in today’s work-from-anywhere environment by offering dedicated desks and managed offices as a product and on-demand needs via their subscription-based FlexiPass. It has almost 50,000 members who have subscribed for 700 spaces in seven cities.

“Coming on the heels of Anarock introducing US-based Upflex Inc, a hybrid booking platform with the largest global network of flexible workspaces, to India, the myHQ acquisition will further strengthen our tech and product offerings and enhance our capabilities in this vertical. myHQ will spearhead our expansion into 20 cities. This gives us nationwide coverage in the flexible workspace domain, and we will tap into overseas markets in the next 12 months,” said Anuj Puri, chairman of Anarock Group.

Individuals and teams can utilize a pay-per-use FlexiPass from myHQ to access over 700 flexible workspaces across the country for ₹200 per day. It also offers companies fixed desks, cabins, and managed offices.

myHQ also works with cafes and lounges to convert them into daytime co-working spaces, allowing them to monetize their empty space throughout the day.

“It is a well-timed move with the right company given our shared enthusiasm around massive opportunity in this space. We can now accelerate innovation, amp-up the team and enhance user experience through a combination of myHQ’s tech solutions, and ANAROCK Group’s business expertise and scale. Hybrid approach to workspaces is on the cusp of an explosion with all companies from startups to big corporates looking to adopt some version of work-from-anywhere model. While today there is some depth of inventory in the metros, to make this model truly successful, tier-II & III cities will need to be the future growth multipliers for India’s flexible workspace ecosystem,” said Utkarsh Kawatra, CEO of myHQ.

TCS signs ‘material multi-year contract’ with US company

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April 5, 2022

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TCS announced on Monday that it had inked a ‘material multi-year contract’ with a prominent US corporation, extending their long-standing partnership to assist them in accelerating their cloud transformation journey.

According to a regulatory filing by the IT services company, the transformation will serve as a platform for future growth, enabling business expansion, incubation of new business models, improved customer experience, and other strategic benefits.

The company said in a BSE filing, “TCS has signed a material multi-year contract with a large American company expanding its long-standing partnership to accelerate their cloud transformation journey and transform their technology landscape into a modern hybrid cloud stack for greater agility, flexibility, and improved operational resilience.”

According to the BSE filing, the cloud-enabled operating model would be driven by enhanced cognitive automation capabilities, which will improve the availability of business applications and improve user experience.

India job market witnessed 18.4% headcount growth: The key sectors that powered growth

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April 4, 2022

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In March, the job market went up by 18.4% year over year as the COVID situation stabilised and the economy progressively returned to normalcy. The travel and hospitality, as well as the energy industries, contributed to the development.

According to a survey by Allsec Technologies, the travel and hospitality sector has experienced a strong recovery, with payroll headcount up 47.6% in March 2022 compared to the previous year. During the pandemic, this was the hardest hit industry.

However, a comparison with pre-pandemic data shows that the travel and hospitality sector has not yet recovered to pre-pandemic levels, with a 24.3% decline in March 2022 compared to March 2020. Still, it is in recovery, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the energy sector saw a 41.5% increase in headcount this year compared to March 2021. With a 42% increase in March this year compared to March 2020, it has reached pre-pandemic levels. With a 27% increase, the IT sector is still third. Logistics, on the other hand, grew by 27.3%.

The research is based on data collected in-house by Allsec Technologies, a comprehensive Business Process Services (BPS) provider that tracks employment trends in various industries.

“We have seen an optimistic recovery pattern across industries this month. It is heartening to see travel and hospitality lead the way, along with several other industries which were severely impacted by the pandemic. We are confident of seeing a positive trend in the months to come, keeping in mind the government’s push for job creation across sectors as seen in the Budget and the economic revival of the country,” Allsec Technologies (a Quess Company) CEO Ashish Johri said.

Coinbase to hire about 1,000 people in India hub

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April 4, 2022

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Coinbase Inc., a US-listed crypto trading platform, announced that it had invested $150 million in Indian technology companies in the crypto and Web3 sectors, with ambitions to hire over 1,000 people in the country hub this year. Web3 is a blockchain-based, decentralised internet.

Coinbase’s aspirations to expand into India coincided with the country’s adoption of crypto-asset tax regulations. For the first time, a 30% tax on gains from crypto assets will be imposed in India, with a 1% TDS imposed on every transfer of such assets.

Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, posted on Medium, an online publishing platform, that the business will host a crypto community event in Bengaluru on April 7 to discuss the future of crypto and web3 in India.

In addition, Coinbase Ventures, the company’s investment arm, has teamed up with Builders Tribe to organise a business pitch event on April 8.

“India has built a robust identity and digital payments infrastructure and implemented it at rapid scale and speed. Combined with India’s world class software talent, we believe that crypto and web3 technology can help accelerate India’s economic and financial inclusion goals,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong is in India this week, where he will meet with students from top universities, crypto founders, Indian entrepreneurs, and crypto evangelists.

Coinbase’s Indian tech hub opened last year and now employs over 300 people worldwide.

VRO Hospitality on an aggressive expansion plan with Café Noir

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April 4, 2022

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VRO Hospitality, India’s fastest-growing hospitality chain, is expanding its iconic and popular French café brand Café Noir across the country.

The Bengaluru-based company, which owns approximately 10 well-known fine-dining brands and cloud kitchens, is on a mission to develop 15 new Café Noir outlets and expand into new cities, including Kochi, Chennai, and Kolkata, as well as establish its first overseas presence in Dubai.

From April 2022, a six-month growth campaign will begin. VRO Hospitality will now have 21 Café Noir locations due to the expansion. Café Noir, synonymous with French cuisine in Bengaluru, opened its first location in the city’s luxury shopping area UB City more than a decade ago.

Café Noir has five locations in Bengaluru and one in Mumbai that opened late last year.

VRO’s expansion strategy aligns with the group’s goal of establishing Café Noir as a pan-India niche French café chain. Kochi will have one new outlet, Chennai will have four, Kolkata will have four, and Bengaluru will have seven new outlets.

Café Noir will be VRO’s first move outside of India, and it will open in Dubai’s Jumeriah. VRO Hospitality intends to rent 30,000 square feet in India and 10,000 square feet in Dubai for Café Noir’s expansion.

Commenting on the expansion plan, Dawn Thomas, CEO & Co-Founder, VRO Hospitality, said: “This year we are embarking on an exciting journey to take our iconic French café brand Café Noir to new markets, including an international destination. This is in line with our ambition of making VRO Hospitality a pan-India brand. Last year as a group we ventured out of Bengaluru for the first time by launching Café Noir in Mumbai in October 2021. Since then, the response has been fabulous. It has become a favorite spot for guests seeking a wholesome French cuisine and a relaxed dining experience. We would be extending our footprints in Kochi, Chennai, and Kolkata and in Dubai as we aggressively chase growth and profitability.”

Sharath Rice, Director & Co-Founder, VRO Hospitality, said, “The expansion of Café Noir will allow us to offer a diverse set of food connoisseurs some of the best in French cuisines. Café Noir has already set a benchmark in the dining experience, and we will continue to do so in the new markets where we would be setting up our outlets.”

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