Wonderla Holidays Limited (WONDERLA) Q3 FY2026 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to Wonderla Holidays Limited Q3 and 9 Months FY '26 Earnings Conference Call hosted by AMBIT Capital Private Limited. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Karan Khanna from AMBIT Capital Private Limited. Thank you and over to you, sir.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of AMBIT Capital, I would like to welcome you all to the 3Q and 9-month FY '26 Earnings Conference Call for Wonderla Holidays Limited. From the management today: we have with us Mr. Arun Chittilappilly, Managing Director; Mr. Saji Louiz, CFO; and Mr. Dheeran Choudhary, Chief Operating Officer of the company. We would like to now begin the call with opening remarks from the management, post which, we will have the forum open for an interactive question-and-answer session. Thank you and over to you, Arun and Saji.

Thank you, Karan. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the conference call for the third quarter of FY '26. The third quarter represents an important milestone for us. We launched our largest amusement park in our portfolio, Chennai, along with steady financial performance across the other parks as well. For Wonderla, this launch represents a significant step in expanding our presence across the different states as per branding strategy. Importantly, we've been able to execute this project in about 21 months and with a total investment of roughly INR 600 crores, INR 611 crores. And we've also been able to avail the full exemption of local body taxes for the next 10 years. So that's a good thing. During the quarter, the income grew by 12% year-on-year to INR 141.5 crores, delivering our highest ever Q3 revenue. This growth was achieved through footfalls of about 9.17 lakh reflecting our continued focus on high [ guest ] spends and improving monetization. ARPU has increased by over 8% for the year to INR 1,377. EBITDA before exceptional items stood at INR 40 crores, up 8%. Importantly, despite absorbing the onetime launch expenses of roughly INR 5.5 crores and the Chennai Park also reported a positive EBITDA contribution of INR 1.3 crores underscoring the strength of our execution. Our resort property also did very well with the resort revenues growing by 71% year-on-year and occupancy reaching 68%. We also marked 20 years of operations of our Bangalore park, which is a testament to the durability of our business. And we continue to selectively invest in guest experience enhancements, including launch of 2 new attractions in Kochi and strengthening engagement and repeat visitation. We also had many seasonal and festive programming, including Christmas and New Year, across the parks and our resorts. These efforts reflect Wonderla's ongoing commitment to responsible operations and being a trusted long-term partner within the communities that we operate in. Looking ahead, our focus remains on disciplined growth driven by ARPU and footfall revenue expansion and also technology-enabled efficiencies and consistent speed of delivery. We remain confident in the long-term growth potential of the business and ability to create sustainable value for our shareholders. With that, I now hand over to Saji to take you through the financial performance in more detail. Saji, over to you.

Thank you, Arun. Good afternoon, everyone. Let me take you through the financial highlights for the quarter and 9 months ended December 31, 2025. For Q3 FY '26, our revenue from operations stood at INR 134.5 crore as compared to INR 121.5 crore in the corresponding quarter last year registering a growth of about 11% on a year-on-year basis. EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 32.17 crore, up by 13% year-on-year with EBITDA margins at 23%. Profit after tax for the quarter stood at INR 14.5 crore as compared to INR 20.3 crore in Q3 FY 2025 resulting in a year-on-year decline of 29%. The decline in PAT was primarily driven by adoption of new labor code related regulatory changes and increased depreciation of new locations and projects during the quarter. Moving to the 9 months performance. Revenue from operations stood at INR 382.9 crores as compared to INR 361.8 crores in the same period last year reflecting a growth of 6% on a Y-o-Y basis. EBITDA for the period stood at INR 116.3 crores, down by 9% on a year-on-year basis with EBITDA margins at 28%. Profit after tax for the 9 months ended stood at INR 65.3 crore as compared to INR 98.2 crore in the corresponding period last year representing a decline of 34% year-on-year. Similarly to Q3, PAT for the 9 months period was impacted by higher compliance costs arising out of adoption of new labor code-related regulatory changes and increased depreciation due to new units and projects. Footfall for the quarter stood at 9.17 lakh, remaining largely in line with the previous period. For 9 months ended December 2025, total footfall reached 23.4 lakh compared to 23.7 lakh in the previous period reflecting a marginal 1% decline. As mentioned above, during the quarter, company adopted the provisions of the new wage code where a certain onetime financial impact of INR 8 crore has been recognized and disclosed under exceptional item in line with the accounting standards. With this, I conclude my remarks. We can now open the call for Q&A session. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] Question is from the line of [ Vinod Krishna ] from Avendus Wealth.

Sir, if you see our Chennai park was planned pre-COVID and we could do it because of the different delays, we got it now done. But we have not announced even a single new park because if you see in the long run our growth, I don't know how the footfalls will grow, but most growth is from new parks and ARPU. So in the next 2, 3 years, can we expect at least another 1, 2 parks to be announced and some work going on or for now -- for next 1, 2 years because it's been almost post-COVID, we have not announced even a single new park. And I'm not saying done, not deployed wise, but we have not [ given ] on even one new large park. So just first question on this, sir.

I don't know which world you're living in, but I think we just finished 2 parks. We opened 1 in Bhubaneswar last year and in the Chennai one this year. So I think we've launched 2 parks. We will definitely be announcing more parks, but maybe not in the immediate future because we are looking at doing larger parks and they will take more time as you are aware already.

So in the next 3 years, we can assume 1 or 2 more parks to be announced or at least to be in the works.

Yes, yes.

And sir, what were we doing to get footfall growth at least to 1%, 2% per year because you said in few con calls that 5% growth is what we are aiming at footfall. So what is your target on footfalls? What can we do to get back?

So footfall will grow -- I mean see, right now we are kind of flattish. Some parks are growing, some parks are not growing. So every park has a different like this year, all the parks which are on like the eastern side, which is Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar, both got affected by lot of rains. In fact even Chennai got affected by rain little bit. So these things will keep happening. So sometimes footfalls will grow. So a lot of external factors also will affect footfalls. But having said that, we are still hopeful that numbers will kind of grow especially in Q2 and Q3 and all that. Q1 maybe growth in large number of -- large growth in footfall especially from older parks cannot be expected, but like 2%, 3% growth is possible.

So when you say Q1, you're talking about financial year or you're talking about calendar, sorry?

Financial year.

Financial year. Okay. So from Q2, Q3, you expect footfall growth. And how is the response in Chennai post December, sir, post [indiscernible]?

It's good. We are quite happy with the progress and you'll see the numbers in the coming quarters.

Sorry to come back to the same question, sir. Any probable locations that you are almost like we are nearing in the next 1 year, we can announce like Delhi or Ahmedabad or Mumbai?

We'll let you know. I can't give you that information right now.

But it is happening in the next 1 year, 2 years, it is -- we are announcing.

Yes. We'll definitely not only announcing, we'll start also before that.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Gunit Singh from Counter Cyclical PMS.

So I would like to understand some economics related to the Chennai park. So what are the fixed costs per quarter for that park and the peak revenue potential from the Chennai park?

See the trend of expenses are yet to be discovered because it's a new park as of now. If you look at the current quarter, we spent about some INR 8.5 crore, which includes a onetime launch expense of INR 5.5 crore and then we have a labor force of about 700 people both on-roll and off-roll. As of now, we are expensing about a INR 2.5 crore odd number. We need to stabilize the operations in the next maybe some 3, 4 months and then post to which, we can come to conclusion about the normal recurring course at this park.

So you mentioned INR 2.5 crores per quarter -- per month?

It's for the month.

Okay. And what are the -- what is the peak revenue potential from this park according to you as per your understanding from other parks?

So I think within 3 to 4 years, we slowly plan to pace this park to be in line with the Bangalore numbers. Because this is the first year, we would also want to wait and see how the overall response is. But our long-term goal is that by the fourth year, it should be able to reach the potential to one of our larger parks like Bangalore.

Got it. So the Chennai park I think is already breaking even. So you have given Chennai park December month highlights. So we did a revenue of about INR 11 crore in December itself for the entire quarter.

It's for the 1 month. The park has opened in December 2.

30 days to be precise.

All right. So we are already at about an operating profit about INR 7 crores to INR 8 crores per month from this park itself?

No, we generated roughly about INR 12 crores with an EBITDA margin of 11%.

All right. 11%. Got it. So I mean you mentioned about INR 2.5 crores, INR 2.6 crores from this park per month if I'm not wrong. So I mean can you help me understand the math?

No, no, no. The total revenue from this park is about some INR 12 crores, as mentioned by Dheeran, and then with a margin of 11% as of now. It's too early because it's actually the first month of operation. So we need to stabilize the operations in the next 5, 6 months. We'll see that.

So we've also invested heavily on the launch, which Saji has mentioned, about INR 5.5 crores. Obviously this kind of onetime -- this is a onetime expense and we would not be spending this month-on-month. So like I said, over the mid- to long term, we expect it to give an EBITDA similar to some of our existing large parks like Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Got it. Sir, you mentioned INR 2.5 crores expenses per month as of now. So I mean I would like to understand is that the correct number going forward for this Chennai park?

No, INR 5.5 crore is onetime park launch expenses. It will not be a repeating expenses. It's only for the first month when you are launching the park. It will not be recurring expenses going forward.

Okay. So INR 2.5 crore is the correct number monthly expenses for this park.

INR 2.5 crores is the labor expenses I said. The total expense can be anywhere about some INR 3 crores or maybe INR 4 crores to INR 5 crores depends. That's what we were saying we need to stabilize the operation for the next 4, 5 months, then we'll come to a conclusion where it is ending up. Mostly if you look at it, what the Bangalore park is delivering or maybe the Hyderabad park is delivering, it's almost in similar line with that EBITDA margins. We have about some 40%, 45% of EBITDA margin from this individual park. This will also achieve that level of EBITDA margin over a period of time. It may not be from the first month itself, but over a period of 4, 5 months or maybe the first year of operations, we will reach up to that efficiency.

Got it. And peak revenue from this will be similar to the Bangalore park?

That's the North Star, but we don't anticipate it to happen in year 1 because it would take us 3 to 4 years to build the business and the brand in Tamil Nadu. But in the midterm, like we suggested, that's our North Star and we are very confident that we should be able to achieve that number.

All right, sir. Got it. My next question is regarding our EBITDA margins. So if we look at the trend for FY '23, '24 and now '25, they have come down from about 50% to 30% currently. So I mean what is the main reason for this?

No. That was a pent-up demand after the COVID years that because we had about some 40% spike in our footfall numbers as well. That cannot be a sustainable model. If you look at the previous history before COVID, we have been having an EBITDA margin of roughly about some 40% on maybe a 10-year period if you compare.

Our next question is from the line of Shamit Ashar from AMBIT Capital.

So after a few muted quarters in terms of footfalls, your Bangalore park saw 3% footfall growth. So what initiatives did you particularly take to improve footfalls in the Bangalore park? And secondly, your revenue growth during the quarter was led by Bangalore and Chennai park and the other parks like Kochi, Hyderabad, they witnessed some moderation in footfalls. So any guidance on how the revenue and footfall for FY '26-'27 would be and also on the margins? That would be helpful.

Yes. So I think we continue to invest in Bangalore both towards our sales and marketing strategies and we've been able to get the upside of that in quarter 3. If you look at Hyderabad, over 2 years there is still a substantial growth. Some of our investments in our sales strategies in FY '25 paid heed and we got a big spike in quarter 3 of last year. We've been able to sustain that growth. So we would look at this as a green shoot itself. Cochin, unfortunately, we had an environmental issue, which was not within our control. There was these waterborne amoeba cases, if you would have noticed, there were multiple news in Kerala. Because of which, this was the duration of school trips being planned. This amoeba is widely spread among young children because of which, the government had mandated schools not to do trips to water parks and that actually impacted our business. But I think fundamentally, we are very positive on Cochin park itself because quarter 2, Cochin delivered one of its best-ever quarter 2 in its history. So fundamentally, things are working well. It was a onetime macro environment issue that caused the dip in Cochin park.

Got it. And guidance on the revenue and footfall numbers for '26, '27?

We don't give guidance like that. So that's not how we look at it especially because we have a new park that's coming in. So you can expect a significant revenue growth. The rest of it we'll have to wait and see.

Okay. And with 1 month already gone by in the fourth quarter so how are you witnessing demand out here in Jan.?

Demand is strong. It's a new park and we've been able to create a lot of buzz. So I think we are on a good track.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from the line of Navin from ithoughtPMS.

Congratulations on a good set of numbers and the opening of the Chennai park. So just quick questions on some of the cost line items. So with respect to the Chennai park mainly, do you -- just the employee cost and like how much is spent on marketing. Do you feel like we've seen like the costs go up and we don't anticipate any more near-term investments or are we still ramping up the promotions with respect -- promotions as well as hiring with respect to the Chennai park? Just want to get a broad -- you don't need to give numbers, just where we are in terms of the park.

In the Chennai park, we have about 600 to 700 employees both on-roll and off-roll, which will get optimized over a period of time. At present, we are incurring a cost of about INR 2.5 crores to INR 3 crores per month, which can again optimize over a period as I said. Marketing, since we are launching a park, we'll have a lot of events and other activities, which generally we take care in any new location. So in this month we spent about some INR 5.5 crore for this, but eventually it will settle in. This will not be recurring expenses. As I suggested earlier, it will be a onetime expenses. Going forward for the regular advertisement and other things, as usual like other parks, about some 7% to 10% of our top line will be the marketing spend on a regular basis. Since it is being a new park, there could be initial spend will be there, but it will settle down into that ratio.

Our next question is from the line of Himanshu Upadhyay from [ Stadford ].

My question was on the new park. Historically, when we used to give the numbers zone-wise; for Bangalore generally, the Tamil Nadu would contribute around 10% to 15% of footfall and Cochin used to have around 20% to 25% footfalls from Tamil Nadu. So should not we expect the scale up to be much better and faster in Chennai than what we have historically seen because Tamil Nadu as a market knows our brand and generally a lot of footfall used to go in other states from Tamil Nadu. So any idea on that?

It's a new park so it's very difficult to predict how it's going to ramp up. It will -- I mean usually even if we do heavy marketing because we are a new park, it's a new location, it takes time and then also group footfalls have to come. So all that you have to build it. So we can -- like you said, it can be very high footfall in the first year itself, but we don't look at it like that. We like to estimate it conservatively and so we'll see.

And is there any risk of cannibalization for Bangalore and Cochin parks or...?

No, they're sufficiently far. They're all far out. They're all 500, 600 kilometers away from each other, it's fine.

And one more thing, this Bhubaneswar footfall has been very, very weak, let's say, around 25,000. What are we doing on that park because it's on a very low base, also the numbers have been not doing anything great?

That's weather related so because of cyclones and all that so we can't do anything. It will come back. It will bounce back once this quarter onwards, I think it should be better. Dheeran, you can answer.

Yes. No, I think for us also it's been year 2. It's also a different format of park. It's a very different market itself and I think there is a lot of learnings and insights. And I think we are going back to the drawing board to see what else we could do from these insights and learnings to plan footfall growth. And we're very confident that in the mid- to long term, there is a market for us. It's also a small format park. So in the mid- to long term, we are going to be able to build the category itself. So unlike our Bangalore and Chennai where the category is a lot more salient, here we are the only amusement park kind of building the category and we hope over a period of time, we should be able to get these benefits. So very positive to kind of revamp this on FY '27. So hoping for the best.

And 1 more thing. Do you still think the Tier 2 towns, the model what -- or a smaller theme park in Ter 2 towns remains a viable model and it can scale up or after [indiscernible].

I think eventually, yes. But like I said, like Dheeran said, these are new categories that we are building in a new city which is not used to this kind of avenues of entertainment. So it will take -- it will be time consuming I think if you do it in Tier 2, Tier 3 cities. But definitely there is a market, but obviously it's a longer game, but definitely worth doing because these are all growing cities like Bhubaneswar also is a growing city in terms of its population, the number of schools, colleges, restaurants, hotels, everything is growing there. So I think in that sense, I think it's okay. But of course we prefer Tier 1 cities if possible. Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities I think definitely we can be there. And also for us, this was also an experiment. So like I said, it might take a little bit longer. But long term I don't think we are worried about it [indiscernible].

Our next question is from the line of Ankit Shah from White Equity Investment Advisors.

Sir, my question is on new projects. So can you share some bit more light on how many potential parks are we kind of working on or are close to signing a deal? And also over next 3 to 4 years, after Chennai, how many parks are we likely to operationalize? If you can share some more light, it will be helpful particularly because we've been waiting for quite a few quarters for an announcement. So if you can throw some more light, it will be helpful.

See, we will definitely sign -- definitely minimum 1, maybe 2 or 3 more locations. Like I said, I can't give you a timeline because this involves the government and government approvals and brand acquisitions. So these are all, what do you call it, these are not things that we can say. I mean we are hoping to finish some of them early. But like for example working with Maharashtra government on doing something in Bombay so these are all -- this will take time. It's not going to happen immediately. But we are hoping that it will happen sooner than later. Like for example in Bhubaneswar, it happened within a few months. Chennai took a long time. So they are all different governments and they have different ways of working. But we are hoping that we can do some of these projects quickly.

Right. So the situation is that there are at least 3, 4 different conversations with the state government that are happening simultaneously at different stages. And we are hoping that 1 or 2 of them should click. Okay. Also, if you can throw some more light on what are the key issues where we are kind of getting stuck in these deals?

There are no issues. I mean this is due process. Land acquisition in any state takes a lot of time and it's nothing unusual here. Also, I think some government changes and authority changes that happen in different states also kind of add to the delays. Usually it kind of happens, it's a normal thing especially in land acquisition. I think once it's done, we will announce. Also, we don't want to give away too much in terms of where we're going to do next. We will -- once it's ready, we'll announce it.

Sure. And the final one is on this only, is the next 1 or 2 parks that -- so are they likely to be on bought out plan or something like Odisha leased-out plan?

Hard to. Like I told you, it's very -- it could be both. It could be -- we don't know which one is going to work first. It's hard to predict. We are hoping the larger ones will come through, but we'll see. We'll keep you posted.

Okay. So that's fine. But the larger ones so is there a possibility of a large park on a lease piece or it is like smaller parks can be on lease and larger will always be owned?

Again I said, it is hard to comment on this. Both are possible. Lease is possible for a large one also.

Our next question comes from the line of [ Atul Sayyed ] from Smart Sync Services.

Sir, I have just a few questions. My one question is on this like business where we operate is capital intensive in nature and basically the gestation period or what we can call payback period is very long in our business. So going forward, how we will get growth in our business and what is our vision for the next 3 to 5 years?

Payback period will be slightly depending upon what is your investment is if it's a larger park and then a smaller park and then a combination of that. Historically, we were able to get a payback within some 4, 5 years, 6 years depending on the size of the park. The larger the park, suppose for example for Chennai, we are investing roughly about some INR 600 crore. It can take about some 7, 8 years to completely get the entire investment back. And then again completely the format of the park is the driving factor for deciding the payback. Region is like, as already mentioned by our MD, we are looking into all the locations, all options. So once it is any deals -- when we are closing any deals, we will definitely give an announcement of this.

Okay, sir. And sir, I saw in your presentation in your resort called Isle I think, we get a good response from our customers basically and our occupancy rates also increased from 51% to around 60% or 65%. So going forward, we also have plan to start more into this category like in resort and hotel side?

Not immediately. So we just started the second resort in Bangalore. So definitely we want to expand it across our park locations and all, but we need to wait some more time because we generally don't start the resort immediately after putting up the park. We just take some time to start the resort. If you look at Bangalore, we started the park in summer in 2005 and resort came up in summer in 2014. So we are not an expert in expanding the resort business. We are expert in expanding the amusement park. Our priority is to first look into the amusement park business and then post to which, we'll see any expansion of resorts in other locations where we have a presence.

We might look at another city like, for example, Hyderabad or Cochin, we might do a resort. We will keep you posted.

Okay. No, sir. Actually if you see the growth in resort business is quite higher compared to this general business which we operate. That's my suggestion. And last question on this, like you mentioned, our PAT declined by 29%. One reason is depreciation and another is -- can you please repeat that?

PAT decrease, 1 reason in Q3 is the extended depreciation of about INR 6 crores coming from new projects as well as the Chennai park and then the labor code impact is there. So in respect to that, there is about some INR 5 crore reduction in our EBITDA. So this is the 2 reasons for the quarter.

Okay. Got it. And sir, our Q3 and Q4 is stronger than Q1 and Q2? Just last 1 question. Our Q3 and Q4 is stronger than Q1 and Q2, right?

Our Q1 is the strongest quarter and then followed by Q3 and then Q4. Q2 will be the weakest quarter.

Because of rainfall and all. Okay.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from the line of Abhishek from ICICI.

I have 2 questions. So I just wanted to know that the resort is scaling up well. I see that the occupancies are also going up well now. So I just wanted to understand how much of it does flow into the park as well. Now what I'm trying to understand is how many people check into your resort, get into the park and spend the day there. And I'll just ask the next question after this.

So it's very seasonal. Depending on the season, it varies between 60% to 80% of our in-house guests use the park facilities. The reason for setting up these resorts are also because it's an extended premiumized version of our park experience.

Okay. Sure. And just 1 small question is I think we were adding 1 more ride in the Bengaluru Park that was some roller coaster, right? And I just wanted to know what's the progress on that?

We are finishing it off. Mostly by March end or beginning of April, we'll be launching the new ride.

Okay. And any estimated spend like what was the spend?

Somewhere between INR 15 crores to INR 20 crores.

Our next question is from the line of Angad from Sameeksha Capital.

Good set of numbers. Just 1 question from my end. There has been some media reports about a potential amusement park in Visakhapatnam, saw some articles on the same. Could you please help us understand if there is any truth on the same and is company evaluating what SKUs are there?

We are just evaluating, no confirmation on that yet.

Our next question is from the line of Sneha from SKS Capital.

Yes. I just had 1 question. You mentioned that we would have a stronger growth going ahead. What would be the triggers for that and are there any near-term triggers as well?

I think one of the obvious impact is that now we have a large format park of Chennai, which was not there in the previous financial year, and that's going to be one of our largest growth drivers along with resort continuing its momentum that it has delivered good quarters back-to-back in quarter 2 and quarter 3. We are also hopeful that some of our long-term brand play and technology play will continue to deliver good ARPU growth across our existing parks and hopefully, some green shoots in footfall.

Our next question is a follow-up from Vinod Krishna from Avendus Wealth.

Sir, how do you think about footfall growth over the long run? Is it -- how should we think like because it's difficult to get footfall growth over the long run? What do you normally do? And what do you model in like 3% or 5% or when I say long run, I'm even talking 5, 7, 8 years? Let's say Bangalore park, Kochi park, they are still hovering around 1 million for a long, long time. So is it just a function of capacity or only once you see footfalls, you keep increasing the parks? How do you model for yourself in the long run footfall growth? And what do you do to attract footfalls sustainably?

I think it's a combination of both. At some seasons, especially the peak season, there is capacity restraint and we want to deliver great customer experience so we do not oversell beyond the capacity. So on certain seasons, we have to leave demand on the table. And the expansion is based on the kind of demand that we see. But I think for mature parks, which have reached its potential of 1 million plus, we do see growth, but I think the larger growth is anticipated from good customer experience, premiumizing our product and delivering better ARPUs to drive overall revenue growth.

No, sir. I'm saying what factors do you think will help us grow over 3%, 4% for the long run? I understand what -- because that's the difficult part of the business, right, to get customers again and again.

We continue to invest on brand, our digital performance technologies. So we continue to be salient in the entertainment category. We are also very sensitive to environment factors like weather, especially. So if weather works in our favor, the brand investments that we do, there can be substantial spikes after every couple of years that can be anticipated.

Sir, just at the cost of repetition, can we assume at least 1 big park over the next 2 to 3 years, 1 big and 1 small or 2 big parks?

I told you we can't tell you until it's done, right? But yes, I mean usually you can say that.

Our next question is from the line of Parimal Mithani from Credential Investments.

This is to the management. I just wanted to know in terms of the guidelines for next 4 to 5 years, how you see yourself in terms of number of parks and the way going ahead. It will be much better for long-term investors like us if you just show some road map for it?

We will be investing in more locations. Our goal is to be a pan-India amusement park player. So obviously we will keep adding new locations. And we'll also look at improving revenues and footfalls in our existing locations. There is scope for that also. So these are the 2 growth drivers. And of course then we'll be adding on value-added offerings like resorts and things like that. All this will be part of our strategy.

So would it be sufficient to say that in next 5 to 8 years, we will be close to 6 to 7 parks or is it too high a number?

Yes, I think it's possible. Maybe even higher also, but we'll have to wait and see. I mean like I said, it's hard to put a number on it.

Our next question is from the line of Jatinmoy Karmakar from JHP Securities.

So just wanted to have a clear picture on the resort of Isle we have. So what is the number of keys that we hold right now? And what is the headroom for the keys to build up on the Bangalore park?

We have 123 keys, which is mix of both the resort and the Isle. We've just launched Isle about 7 months ago so I think we are well capacitated and we've already expanded this. We've also refurbished our existing resort, which was 84 keys. So I don't think in Bangalore as a city, we look at adding further more keys in the midterm.

Okay. And there is no headroom for growth in Bangalore in terms of resort?

In the midterm, no. We've just launched Isle. So I think the focus is how do we continue this growth at least in the next 2 to 3 years on the existing capacity in Bangalore.

Our next question is from the line of Nikhil Upadhyay from SIMPL.

Just 1 clarification. In the call, you mentioned that generally for the first quarter or first month, we have these higher marketing expenses for the park. So is it like if you look at the other expenses of INR 55 crore, is that booked in this quarter or would it be booked in the subsequent quarter? Some clarity if you can give.

No, not clear. INR 55 crores -- I'm not sure about.

Sir, if I look at our other expenses for this quarter, it's INR 55 crores versus last year similar of INR 49 crores. So is there a higher?

Yes, which includes the marketing expense as well.

Okay. So some part is booked here and some part would be booked in March quarter?

No. Everything is booked in this quarter. It's already part of the other expenses. That's what I'm saying.

Okay. Secondly, this is like pretty basic question. But see, there were some news items and threads where there were some issues with the rides in the initial period in Chennai park. I know this would have happened in other parks also, but does it impact the equity or the footfalls the way we would have thought about or does it not impact in the longer run? And how do you manage these kind of negative publicity?

So I think to answer your second question on how do we handle this negative publicity, I think we've been very transparent on why this has happened. And I think when we communicated clearly through our platforms on why this happened, I think the consumers were aware that it was more of power fluctuations than to do with any safety issues. And that immediately brought back confidence and that's the reason why we've been able to deliver 75,000 footfall in the first month of operations despite having red alert and yellow alert the first week of December when we launched. So I think that in the long term, it does not create -- if everything is communicated clearly to the customer, it does not impact the brand and we've seen that in our Chennai numbers in the first month.

Okay. And last question, is there a seasonality in Chennai like the way we have for Kochi and Bangalore or is there extreme seasonality in Chennai? Like how do you -- how should one think about it?

That's the nature of the business. We see peak seasons in any region you go during holidays. That's the nature of the business. So we do anticipate seasonality in Chennai, but how this seasonality will play out, we'll have to finish a full year to understand better.

Our next question is from the line of Vinay Nadkarni from Hathway Investments Private Limited.

Just wanted to know why was the Hyderabad ticket price drop this quarter? Any particular reason? Because it seems to be an abnormal drop compared to other parks where it has seen a growth.

Yes. So if you see quarter 3 for Hyderabad is highly dominant on group footfall. So these are large school group formats that come. These are large groups that come, obviously there is some discounting on ticket price. Apart from that, we experienced the skew between the FID and the groups changed.

Your voice is breaking now.

So we were saying that for park Hyderabad, quarter 3 is heavily dependent on group, which is largely the education institutions. And because these are large volume numbers that come in, they always come in at a discounted rate. But apart from that, there was -- the skew between the retail to group footfall changed a bit versus the previous quarter and that primarily changed the ATP a bit. But if you look at over 9 months, there is a green shoot in ATP and we hope to continue seeing that in the coming quarters as well. So it's just a one-off anomaly.

Okay. Secondly, this exceptional cost that you have said is that labor code provision, is it?

Yes, yes.

Okay. And last on just a strategic viewpoint. When you're looking at setting up a new park, would a touristy place be more amenable to drawing more crowds automatically when people are in the mood to enjoy and go out? So a city like Goa or would that be a target that you would be looking at?

Yes, Goa is also part of our -- we are also looking at Goa as well, yes.

We have the last question from the line of Gunit Singh from Counter Cyclical PMS.

I just want to continue on the question. So by when do you expect our Chennai park to break even? And if I'm not wrong, our total I mean expenses per month you mentioned are about INR 4 crore to INR 5 crore. That's about I think INR 40 crores to INR 50 crores annually. So do we expect to break even in the first year or if not, by when?

No. Historically, we were able to break even in the first year itself, but the margin levels will be slightly lesser than compared to the mature park. We may be getting about some 20%, 25% of EBITDA margin whereas the established parks will be having about 40%, 45% of EBITDA margin. But we cannot predict as of now because we just completed 1 month in Chennai. So we'll take some more time to understand the structure at which it will move in and post to which, we'll take a call on this.

Got it. But my assumption that about INR 50 crores revenue for breakeven, is that assumption correct in Chennai park?

Yes. So roughly about some INR 50 crores to INR 60 crores in that range we are expecting.

All right. And the Bhubaneshwar Park that we started, is that also broke even in the first year?

No, yet to.

All right. So our operating margin are currently 30%. So I mean what kind of margins do we expect in FY '27 or FY '28 once the Bhubaneshwar park put margins in the business.

We usually don't give guidance on margins. We can only say that each of our parks can roughly be at a mature level. We can -- approximately only we can tell you margins. We can't predict it.

Our next question is from the line of [ Girish ] from Bryanston Investments.

Dheeran, to your reference of North Star for Chennai, but the investment is to the level of INR 611 crores. So INR 170 crores worth of revenue. Is this the right way to model the Chennai park over the next 4 to 5 years or is it a lower number?

Look, that's fine. The footfall is the North Star, we also continue to hope to deliver good green shoots in the ARPU. I think only when we'll be able to finish 1 year, we'll be able to model a more better revenue system for year 2, year 3, year 4. So maybe we can throw some color on this after we complete a year.

Thank you. We take that as the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments.

Thank you all for attending our Q3 FY '26 conference call. And we are very happy with the results that we've got for this quarter and we continue to be optimistic about business opportunities in our existing and new locations. We hope to see you again in the next quarter. Thank you.

Thank you. On behalf of AMBIT Capital Private Limited, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us and you may now disconnect your lines.