Tag Archives: Chairman & Managing Director

Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director, Thomas Cook (India), has categorically denied a rumour floating against it on social media platforms. He said, “We have witnessed robust performances across all our key travel and foreign exchange businesses and continue to remain at a healthy financial position having prepaid our obligations and are debt free at a holding company level. We are bullish on both the foreign exchange as well as the inbound and outbound businesses. We are scouting for new investments and are looking for the right opportunity.” In a statement, the company claimed that they want to clarify that Thomas Cook (India is part of Fairfax Financial Holdings, is a completely different entity from Thomas Cook PLC and has been an independent company since August 2012. It also claimed that Thomas Cook (India) is financially strong, profitable and maintains a positive outlook in the travel and tourism sector and continues to witness strong growth. The statement said, “Cash and bank deposits balance of the Thomas Cook India Group (consolidated level) is at Rs. 10588 Mn. as of March 31, 2019. On a standalone basis Thomas Cook India is debt free upon pre-payment of Rs. 670 Mn debenture obligations ahead of schedule. This has been made possible using stable and strong cash flows that the Thomas Cook India Group is generating year over year. Group generates an annual free cash flow of around Rs. 2000-2500 Mn. As earlier reported, for the Financial Year ended March 31, 2019 on a comparable basis, the Group’s consolidated revenue from operations increased by 18% from Rs.56 Bn. to Rs.66 Bn. Consolidated PBT increased by 985% from Rs. 53 Mn. in FY18 to Rs. 573 …

The Board of Thomas Cook (India) (TCIL) has approved (subject to regulatory approvals) a corporate restructuring exercise aimed at streamlining its businesses into four key verticals namely, Travel (outbound, domestic, business travel & MiCE), Foreign Exchange, Destination Management Services and Portfolio Investments such as Sterling Holiday Resorts. In its current structure, TCIL along with its subsidiaries and associate companies such as SOTC, TCI, TC Travel (earlier Tata Capital Travel) and Sterling Holidays are engaged in various travel and travel-related financial services, vacation ownership and resorts while Quess Corp is engaged in human resource and business related services such as industrial asset management, integrated facility management, and technology solutions. In order to streamline the various businesses of the group, both from operating and management perspective, the restructuring will consolidate like businesses into identified entities creating a simpler and more efficient operating structure with dedicated and focused business verticals. Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director, TCIL said, “This proposed restructuring with the realignment of the travel businesses of TCIL and consolidation of the  human resource services business into Quess Corp, will simplify the group’s structure, enabling both TCIL and Quess to grow independently and consolidate their positions in their segments with far greater clarity of focus from an industry and growth/opportunity point of view – for investors, management and teams.”  

Hilton has announced the signing of management agreements with Embassy Group to develop two hotels in Bengaluru. Construction of the new hospitality project is among the largest in India which is expected to begin this year and the hotels will be operational by end 2021 or early 2022. The 500 room dual-branded hotel that features a Hilton Hotels & Resorts and a Hilton Garden Inn hotel in the same complex will be located within the 100-acre Embassy TechVillage Business Park near Marathalli on ORR South Bengaluru. “We are delighted to sign our third hotel project with Hilton, reflecting the powerful synergies and collaboration between both Groups. Using Embassy’s proven expertise in project development, we are focused on delivering landmark hotels that will provide an elevated service for our corporate occupiers within their work environment. As in the past five years, the mainstay of our Hospitality foray will be to build hotels and mixed-use developments as part of our business parks.”, said Jitu Virwani, Chairman & Managing Director, Embassy Group. “Hilton is committed to grow its operations in India. We are delighted to reinforce our partnership with Embassy Group and we strongly believe that this dual branded concept will immensely benefit our guests.” said Navjit Ahluwalia, Senior Vice President and Country Head, Hilton India.

Krishan Kumar Amla, Chairman & Managing Director, Broadway Enterprises has been conferred the Gallery of Legends trophy at the North India Travel Awards. Instrumental in growing the tourism and hospitality industry in Jammu & Kashmir, Amla has held various positions over the years, including Member, Board of Directors, Indian Airlines; Vice Chairman, PATA – India Chapter; Member – J&K Advisory Committee on Tourism; Member – Board of Governors, IHM, PUSA, New Delhi and Member – Managing Committee – Hotel and Restaurant Association of Northern India (HRANI). He was also part of the Team of Technocrats under Rajiv Gandhi and has been the Senior Vice President and Treasurer, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee. With a Bachelor’s degree in science from Kashmir University and hotel management degrees from Lancashire in the UK and Cornell University, USA, he has a business experience of over 50 years.

The Annual General Meeting of the World Travel & Tourism Council, India Initiative (WTTCII) held at New Delhi on December 12 saw new appointments for the year 2018. Sunder G. Advani, Chairman & Managing Director, Advani Hotels & Resorts (India) Limited has been appointed as board’s Chairman while Rajeev Talwar, Chief Executive Officer, DLF has been named as the Vice Chairman of WTTCII. Advani said, “As WTTCII members facilitate the movement of millions of people around India every year,  we see the growth of tourism in generating economic opportunity, social cohesion and pride. While GST has been a welcome move, we urge the government to reconsider the GST on hospitality and bring it at par with India’s competing destinations like Sri Lanka, Thailand, etc.” Talwar said, “WTTCII has been championing convergence between Government of India and states to facilitate tourism in India. Our role will be to encourage the state governments – the political leadership and bureaucracy – to take a more favourable stance towards the tourism sector. We will continue to work with the states to improve access, address infrastructural gaps and remove policy bottlenecks for tourism to flourish, and most importantly create jobs, employment and provide a vigorous boost to tourism’s contribution to the state’s GDP.”

The Indo-American Business Chamber of SME in association with Lords Hotels & Resorts recently organised a comprehensive forum on Goods & Service Tax (GST) for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at Hotel Sahara Star, Mumbai. The forum witnessed a number of entrepreneurs from various industries including manufacturing, real estate, hospitality and banking. Shiv Pratap Shukla, Minister of State (MoS) for Finance, Government of India who was the chief guest for the evening addressed many concerns expressed by the attendees and clarified nuances around the latest GST resolutions announced last month. While applauding the Govt. and its revolutionary tax reform, P R Bansal, Chairman & Managing Director, Lords Hotels & Resorts, also raised a few concerns affecting the real estate and hospitality sectors. In his speech, he appealed to the Minister to consider the pleas and convey the concerns to the GST Council for deliberation. “The reduction in GST rate for restaurant was made by the GST Council based on the feedback we received from people. We are happy that we not only reduced the GST rate from 18 per cent to 5 per cent but also made it uniform for all restaurants,” Shiv Pratap Shukla concluded.  

The National Capital Region is all set to witness the 5th Global Hospitality Conclave (GHC) at The Leela Ambience Gurgaon on January 6, 2018. The conclave, an independent initiative by the alumni of the erstwhile Oberoi School of Hotel Management (OSHM), now The Oberoi Centre for Learning & Development (OCLD), brings together a host of industry leaders to discuss the trends and developments in the hospitality, travel & aviation industry. GHC will see the participation of Pramod Bhasin, Vice Chairman Emeritus, Genpact; Jan Tissera, President, Travel Click; Ajay Singh, Chairman & Managing Director, Spice Jet; Puneet Chhatwal – Managing Director & CEO Indian Hotels; and Shyam Saran, Indian career diplomat, IFS as keynote speakers. Panel discussions will be held on topics such as Disruptive Innovation, Tourism Trends and a session themed Young Turks with young achievers. Organised annually, the Global Hospitality Conclave sees participants from across the world who have been part of The Oberoi Group in a leadership position. The objective is to get the Oberoi Hotels alumni together annually, who are presently employed in different sectors across the world and creating a platform of knowledge exchange, experiences and networking opportunities.  

Thomas Cook India has announced that its Board has approved the signing of a definitive agreement with Tata Capital Limited to acquire its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Tata Capital Forex Limited (foreign exchange) and TC Travel and Services Limited (travel services). The network of the two acquired entities includes 24 locations pan India. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals. Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director, Thomas Cook India, said, “Our acquisition of Tata Capital’s Forex and travel companies serves to further strengthen the Thomas Cook India Group’s leadership position in the Travel & Foreign Exchange sector in the country. This also gives us the opportunity to continue to serve the strong corporate portfolio of both Tata Capital Forex Limited and TC Travel Services Limited- large corporate houses including flagship Tata Group companies; as also a set of new retail customers.” He added, “The acquisition creates clear opportunities, including a significant increase in scale and network reach, volume/ buying advantages as well as technology gains, all resulting in stronger customer service and stakeholder value.” Praveen Kadle, Managing Director and CEO, Tata Capital said, “Travel and Forex services are perfectly poised for rapid and high growth. We are confident that Thomas Cook would take this business forward and help it reach its potential.”

The Thomas Cook India (TCI) Group has announced the completion of the acquisition of a significant part of Kuoni’s global DMS network. As a part of this acquisition, the Thomas Cook India Group will now include leading Destination Management Specialists (DMS) like Asian Trails (APAC), Desert Adventures (MENA), ATM-Australian Tours Management (Australia), Allied T Pro (North America), Private Safaris (Eastern Africa) and Private Safaris (Southern Africa) under its network creating a seamless delivery capability for the group and its B2B and B2C customers across 21 countries and 4 continents. Post the acquisition, The Thomas Cook India Group, with over 6500 employees across 21 countries and a combined revenue in excess of Rs. 8700 crore (over $1.34 billion) has been -transformed into one of the largest travel service provider networks headquartered in the Asia-Pacific region. With this move, The Thomas Cook India Group’s travel business network has now expanded with the addition of 17 new countries, increasing its footprint to now cover 21 countries. The Group, which prior to this acquisition, comprisied Thomas Cook (India), SOTC Travel, TCI-SITA and Kuoni Hong Kong had a network spanning 4 countries – India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Hong Kong. Commenting on this development, Madhavan Menon, Chairman & Managing Director, The Thomas Cook India Group., said, “This acquisition of a significant part of Kuoni’s Global Destination Management network represents an important milestone for a rapidly growing Thomas Cook India Group, as we deliver on our stated strategy of rapid expansion in the Asia Pacific region. Now with a significantly enhanced global footprint across 4 continents and 21 countries, we have over 6500 employees serving customers across the world under some of the most respected brands …

Air India has a market share of 17 per cent in the North East, which seemingly is a profitable sector for the airline. Ashwani Lohani, Chairman & Managing Director, Air India informed that while some sectors are not profitable in the North East, overall the operations remain gainful as they get a viability gap funding from North Eastern Council (NEC). He also informed that they are considering to operate a direct flight between Guwahati and Bangkok or between Guwahati and Kunming thrice a week. He informed that they are planning to start a new flight between New Delhi and Guwahati from June 28, taking the number of flights on this route to two. Also the Guwahati-Kolkata flight is most definitely on the cards.