Mahindra Holidays & Resorts (MHR) is a Mahindra group
company with a very strong franchise in vacation ownership under the brand name
Club Mahindra. Mahindra group holds 75% stake, FIIs hold about 12.5% stake and
DIIs hold another 5%. So together more than 90% of the shares are owned by
promoters and institutions. There can’t be any other comforting factor than
these figures. This also means that the public holds merely 7-8% of the shares.
This is a very attractive company with 41 resorts and nearly
2500 rooms. Recently they have acquired a 19% stake in a leading European
vacation ownership company Holiday Club. This company also has 32 resorts and
2800 rooms. And the agreement between the 2 is that in the next 2 years,
Mahindra Holidays can own upto 74% stake in the company, thus making it a
majority owned subsidiary. If this were to happen Club Mahindra will become a
vacation ownership company not only in India but also globally.
This company had launched in IPO in June 2009 and has been
growing ever since. 5 years ago, it had a turnover of merely 390 crore which
has grown to nearly 770 crore today.And considering India’s demography, this
growth can only accelerate in the coming years.
This company operates in markets where there is a huge young
population with high aspirations. This has resulted in their membership count
growing annually by about 18000. And considering the new govt’s focus on travel
and tourism, MHR is bound to grow handsomely.
5 years ago, they had launched an IPO @300 per share. And
despite growing ever since, this is now quoting even below that value at about 275 This only goes to
show the Indian market’s utter disregard for fundamentals - management as well
as growth quality. And they haven’t given any bonus or split since then.
Another thing worth noting is that recently Thomas Cook, the
global travel and tours company acquired Sterling Holiday Resorts, a much
smaller player in the same industry. And if u consider the valuations and price
at which this deal was done, MHR is really quoting at dirt cheap levels.
This can only mean that with a very
low floating stock, excellent growth prospects and cheap valuation, Mahindra Holidays will only give handsome
returns in the months and years ahead.
