Waterways Leisure Tourism Ltd (CORDELIA) Q2FY27 Concall Transcript - Sep-2026 Qtr
Moderator: Your passcode has been confirmed. Please wait while you are joined to the conference. The conference is now being recorded.
Sagar (Concept Investor Relations): Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Waterways Leisure Tourism Limited Q2 and H1 FY '27 earnings conference call hosted by Concept Investor Relations to discuss the company's financial and operational performance for the quarter and half-year ended September 2026. Before we begin, let me mention a short cautionary statement. Some of the statements made in today's earnings call may be forward-looking in nature. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those anticipated. Such statements are made on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by the information currently available to the management. Audiences are cautioned not to place any undue reliance on these forward-looking statements in making any investment decisions. The purpose of today's earnings call is purely to educate and bring awareness about the company's fundamental business and financial quarter under review. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star and then zero on your touchtone phone. Let me introduce you to the management: Mr. Jurgen Bailom, Executive Director and CEO; Mr. Nishikant Upadhyay, Chief Financial Officer. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Jurgen Bailom. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Jurgen Bailom (Waterways Leisure Tourism Ltd): Thank you Sagar. Very good evening everyone, and thank you for joining us today for Waterways Leisure Tourism Limited Q2 and H1 FY '27 earnings call. Joining me today is Mr. Nishikant Upadhyay, our Chief Financial Officer, and our Investor Relations partner Concept Public Relations. Let me start with a little perspective on where we are as business today. We started Waterways Leisure Tourism in November 2020, and we set sail with Cordelia Cruises in September 2021. Over the last few years, we have built Cordelia into a strong cruise brand in India. From the very beginning, our goal was simple: to create a premium cruise experience built around the Indian traveller. And what they value most for us as a cruise is not just about the destination, it's about the complete holiday, from food and entertainment, accommodation, family experiences, wellness, and what guest experience both on board and ashore. Very pleased to say, a key development as we entered the second half of FY '27 is the delivery of Cordelia Skye, which has arrived in Mumbai today, this morning at 8:00 AM at the beautiful International Cruise Terminal in Mumbai, on schedule, and will commence sailing from 23rd of October. The early delivery reflects the strong execution, operational efficiency, by giving us additional time to complete preparation and ensure a smooth start to operations. With a capacity of 2,400 guests across 1,002 staterooms, Skye will increase our overall capacity by approximately 126%. More importantly, it gives us significantly greater flexibility to operate a wider range of domestic and international itineraries. Revenue from Skye will start contributing from second-half of this financial year, with the larger benefit building progressively as utilization ramps up. We are encouraged by the initial booking trends, and we believe the additional capacity will allow us to serve much broader range of customer occasions and travel preferences. For us, Skye is more than addition to the fleet. It is an important step in expanding the number of occasions for which customers
Jurgen Bailom (Waterways Leisure Tourism Ltd): Cordelia, whether for family holidays, weekend getaways, celebrations, a destination wedding or an international vacation. Coming up to our performance, Q2 FY27 was a strong quarter for us, with performance improving both year-on-year and sequentially. We have outperformed Q1 and delivered improvement despite a challenging external environment including geopolitical uncertainties and broader macroeconomic headines. For us, this is an important message. While external conditions can influence travel patterns and consumer sentiments, our focus remains on what we can control, demand generation, pricing, inventory management, customer experience and cost discipline. We're also seeing additional revenue streams contributing to the business, reflecting the increasing breadth of our offering and opportunities we have to enhance revenue per guest. At the same time, cost management remains an important priority. We are taking an aggressive but disciplined approach to sales and inventory management, balancing demand simulation with pricing and capacity optimization. The objective is clear: to drive higher utilization and revenue while protecting the quality of our earnings. Looking at the larger opportunity, we remain very positive about the long-term potential of cruising in India. In India recorded approximately 4.8 lakh cruise passenger movements in CY 2025, by domestic passengers accounting for nearly 89%. The Indian overnight ocean and coastal cruise industry was valued at approximately 8,000, 301 million for FY25 compared to 5,764,000 million in FY20, and is expected to grow with an around 20% to 25% CAGR between FY26 and FY30. Yet cruise penetration in India remains very low relative to the overall travel and tourism opportunity. As consumers increasingly look for differentiated, experience-led holidays, we believe cruising is well-positioned to benefit from the structural shifts by bringing accommodations, timings, entertainments and destinations together in one experience. India's extensive coastline is a significant structural advantage for the industry. In addition, wherever applicable, passport-free and visa-free cruise entries can reduce the friction associated with conventional international travels. Further support for cruising as an attractive and accepted holiday choice for Indian consumers. We therefore see a long runway for the category and believe our increasing scale, broad itinerary network and differentiated customer proposition position us well to participate in this growth. It is broader travel opportunity. We're also seeing an encouraging opportunity in the weddings and celebrations segment. Industry data indicates that FY28 could see approximately 95 wedding days compared to the typical calendar of around 65 to 70, representing an increase of nearly 40%. With our cruise proposition and the additional capacity coming through Cordelia Skye, we believe we're well-positioned to participate in this growing demand and further develop weddings and celebrations in an attractive revenue stream across accommodation, dining, entertainment and other onboard services. As we continue to expand our fleet, we remain focused on building a larger and more scalable cruise platform. Alongside the delivery of our previously announced next vessel Sun remains on schedule.
Jurgen Bailom (Waterways Leisure Tourism Ltd): expansion opportunities beyond sun. We are in initial discussions with each customer. While it's too early to provide specific details at this point, our direction remains clear, progressively build capacity in line with the growth of the Indian cruise market. Our strong strategy is not simply about adding capacity, it's about deploying vessels across the right mix of itineraries, optimizing utilization and pricing and assuring that additional capacity translate into sustainable revenue profitability growth. As we scale, our focus will remain on maintaining the quality of customer experience, while ensuring that growth is supported by operational and financial discipline. Along capacity expansion, we are also strengthening our relationship with our customers. As part of this, we are rolling out our loyalty program called the Chairman's Club. We believe the structural loyalty program can help us deepen engagement with our existing customer base, encourage repeat travel, and create more opportunities to engage with customers beyond a single voyage. This is particularly relevant as we build a business where the same customer can travel with us on different occasions and across different destinations. Ultimately, our objective is to give customers more reason to choose Cordelia and, over time, build stronger repeat engagement and customer value. With that, I will hand over to Nishikant to take you through the financial performance for the quarter and the first half.
Nishikant Upadhyay (Waterways Leisure Tourism Ltd): Thank you Jurgen. Good evening everyone. Let me take you through our financial performance for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. For quarter two, financial year '27, revenue from operations stood at rupees 1,329 million, registering a year-on-year growth of 31% compared to financial year financial year '26 value being rupees 1,015 million in the quarter two. EBITDA for the quarter stood at rupees 777 million with an EBITDA margin of 58.45%. While profit after tax stood at rupees 585 million, translating into a PAT margin of 44.02% for the current quarter. For the half year financial year '27, revenue from operations stood at rupees 3,230 million, representing a year-on-year growth of 16%. EBITDA stood at rupees 1,242 million, with an EBITDA margin of 38.45%. While PAT stood at rupees 813 million, with a PAT margin of 25.16%. During the quarter, the company has received USD 5.2 million in compensation from Norwegian Sky Limited for the early handover of the vessel Sky on September 10, 2026, ahead of its original delivery date of 30th of September 30, 2026. This amount has been derived considering 21 days early delivery calculated basis on the 100% load factor and has been compensated by NCL. And as Jurgen, in introductory speech, has rightly pointed that, yes, we have taken the delivery and the vessel has duly arrived today, Mumbai, in the morning. From an operational perspective, the company's load factor improved marginally year-on-year basis to 75.53 in quarter two for the financial year '27. For half year, financial year '27, the load factor increased to 91.23% from 87.79% in the corresponding previous last year. Now, gentlemen, coming to the average ticket price for quarter two, financial year '27 stood at rupees 10,300 as compared
Nishikant Upadhyay (Waterways Leisure Tourism Ltd): rupees 9,529. While the half year FY27, average ticket price increased to 11,800 rupees from rupees 10,468 in half yearly FY26. Average revenue per passenger stood at rupees 13,645 in Q2 FY27 compared with rupees 10,349 in Q2 FY26. For half yearly FY27, average revenue per passenger increased to rupees 12,930 against 11,424 for the corresponding period last year. So, these are all encouraging numbers. Fuel cost, which was which is a challenge, so fuel cost of per available passenger cruise day APCD has increased to rupees 2,471 in Q2 FY27 vis-a-vis which was 1,434 in Q2 of FY26. Half yearly FY27 fuel cost per APCD stood at 2 1,481 as compared to 1,472 in the corresponding period last year. Available passenger cruise days is typically how many cabins you have multiplied by number of two people into the number of days when you are sailing. So if you talk about the collective number, the fuel impact for the half year is as compared to previous year and current year is almost to the extent of 28 odd crores. Had it would not been there, the profits would have been more by 28 odd crores. Company has maintained a healthy debt to equity ratio of 0.57%, reflecting a balanced capital structure during the period. As Jurgen rightly mentioned that yes, we are in the process of looking for further more vessels. And in line with this, we have advanced around rupees 4,000 420 429 million towards the acquisition of new vessel. It's an advance which has been given and it is an interest bearing advance. We continue to maintain a disciplined approach towards cost while effectively managing pricing and inventory to optimize revenue realization. With Cordelia Skye now delivered ahead of schedule, we will progressively evaluate its contribution to capacity, revenue, profitability as we commence operation. Overall, we remain focused on balancing growth, investments with financial discipline and ensuring that capacity expansion translates into sustainable improvement in earnings. While moving it back to Jurgen, I just need to mention that if we talk about increase in fuel cost of around 28 odd crores, as Jurgen has rightly mentioned that yes, we have been managing the cost effectively, so there has been a cost saving in various areas, which has been instrumental into absorbing the increase in the fuel price. With this, I will hand the call back to Jurgen.
Jurgen Bailom (Waterways Leisure Tourism Ltd): Thank you very much Nishikant. And before we close, I would like to leave you with a few key takeaways. First, Q2 and H1 FY27 was a stronger quarter for us, with performance improving both sequentially and year on year, despite challenging external environment. Second, the delivery of Cordelia Skye today, 1 month ahead of schedule, marks an important step up in our capacity, in our ability to offer wider range of itineraries with experiences. Third, we are strengthening customer relation through initiatives, such as our new loyalty program, the Chairman's Club, while continuing to build additional revenue opportunities across weddings, celebrations, and onboard experiences. Fourth, we are evaluating further fleet expansions beyond Son, as Nishikant mentioned, with initial discussions underway and financial planning in progress. And finally, our conviction in the long-term opportunity remains strong. India has a vast coastline, a growing travel and leisure market, and significant headroom for cruise penetration. We will remain focused and disciplining capacity
Jurgen Bailom (Waterways Leisure Tourism Ltd): ship, strong customer engagement, revenue optimization and cost management as we build the next phase of Waterways Leisure Tourism. Thank you for joining us today. We will now be happy to take any questions. Over to you Sagar. Thank you.
Moderator: Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question, may press star and then one on their touch tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Again to register for a question, please press star and then one.
Moderator: Our first question comes from the line of Vansh Jain, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Vansh Jain: Hello? Hello, am I audible?
107 more turns of this transcript: log in to Stocksigma to read the full call.