Sterling Holiday Resorts aims to double capacity in 5 years without capex

Vacation ownership company Sterling Holiday Resorts will take an asset-light route to double its room capacity to 4,500, through management contracts.The Thomas Cook-owned entity, seeing a multi-year high occupancy of 72 per cent this year, is also expecting to be Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation)-positive in 2017-18.Sterling has 33 resorts in the country, with a room strength of 2,200. "We will expand this to 4,500 rooms in the next four-five years. The majority of the addition will come from management contracts. We might build our own resorts but not in large numbers. We are in talks with 10 owners to bring their asset to Sterling under a management contract. There will be no capex (capital expenditure) and the expansion will be faster," said Ramesh Ramanathan, managing director. More than half the 33 operational resorts are company owned; the rest are leased. No property is under a management contract. "Management contracts in these leisure ...