Minor International (MINT) announces strong 2024 performance with record-breaking 43% profit growth, reveals 2025-2029 plans to expand global hotel and restaurant empire, leveraging brand strength and Asset Right strategy, targets ROIC above 12%, and plans a $1.5 billion REIT to strengthen financial position.
Bangkok, Thailand – Minor International (MINT) showcases outstanding performance, announcing record-breaking profits for 2024 of 7.8 billion baht, a 43% increase, and core net profit of 8.4 billion baht, an 18% increase, solidifying its leadership in the global hotel and restaurant business. The company is aggressively expanding, aiming to add 280 hotels and 1,500 restaurants by 2027, and launching the “Anantara” luxury cruise line to bolster its tourism business.
MINT’s Group CEO, Dillip Rajakarier, stated, “2024 was a fantastic year for us, and every year we have been breaking records, and last year was the highest ever again.” He added that the company successfully reduced its net interest-bearing debt-to-equity ratio (D/E) to 0.8 as targeted, and remains committed to further debt reduction.
He continued: “We added approximately 30 new hotels to our portfolio in 2024, most of which are management contracts. These 30 hotels represent about 3,000 rooms. We also opened an additional 80 restaurants, on top of our existing portfolio, for the food group. As you know, our food group is now one of the largest food groups based here in Thailand and in Asia Pacific. And for Minor Hotels, it’s again one of the largest hotel companies globally, within the top hotel groups in the world.”
“One of the things we did was to reduce the net interest-bearing debt to equity ratio, which decreased from 1 to 0.8 in 2024, as we continue to focus on reducing our debt in the coming years. This year, we are confident that we can reduce debt throughout the year, and our targets for the next three years are also quite solid in terms of debt reduction. I think this is a quick summary and recap of the successful 2024.”
In 2024 annual profit growth, MINT forcast that Minor will deliver a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) profit of 15-20% and last year they delievered 18%. In spite of challenging year with geopolitical issues, including the war in Middle East, China Slowdown, the problems and war in Ukraine and Russia, but even so Minor continue to have a strong performance. And the last year performance was 18% growth in term of profit which our target is 15-20%, so they have achieved that target.
Secondly, MINT will make the balance sheet much stronger. MINT set the target for 2024 that Debt to Equity Ratio will be at 0.8 and they achieved that. The company did some asset recycling, some refinancing and still continue to reduce Debt in Balance sheet. The net debt to EBITDA ratio, which is another measurement that MINT uses, especially in Europe, and most rating agencies use this indicator.
MINT aimed to reduce this number, and MINT’s target for 2024 was 4.3, and they achieved 4.3. This number will continue to decrease. In 2025, MINT believes that this number will decrease below 4. Another indicator that MINT uses is Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), which is calculated from the money MINT invested and the return they received. MINT’s ROIC target was 10% by 2026, but in 2024, they already achieved 10.5%. Therefore, MINT exceeded their set ROIC target. And finally, how MINT will reduce the volatility of foreign exchange. MINT can reduce the gap between core profit and reported profit.
Because there is always a difference between core profit and reported profit, mostly due to foreign exchange. But in Q4 of 2024, MINT was able to realize a net profit of more than 900 million baht, which helped reduce that gap. Overall, MINT exceeded their targets for 2024, and 2025 looks to be strong, both in hotels and food.
Key Success Factors:
MINT revealed that its success in 2024 was due to several strong strategies, including:
- Profit Growth: The company achieved 18% profit growth despite facing challenges from external factors such as geopolitical issues and global economic volatility.
- Financial Management: MINT successfully reduced its D/E and net debt-to-EBITDA ratios as planned.
- Return on Investment: The company exceeded its Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) target, achieving 10.5%.
- Risk Management: MINT reduced foreign exchange volatility and narrowed the gap between core profit and reported profit.
Dillip added that, as everyone is aware, Thailand has been very privileged and fortunate to have been chosen as the filming location for White Lotus season 3. He believes that most media professionals are familiar with White Lotus season 3, as it has elevated Thailand to another level, repositioning the country as a high-end tourist destination.
This has been very beneficial for MINT, and as known, White Lotus season 3 was filmed at all of MINT’s properties, including Four Seasons Koh Samui, which is owned by MINT; Anantara Lawana Koh Samui Resort, a hotel managed by Minor under the Anantara brand; Anantara Mai Khao Phuket Villas, which is a MINT property; and Anantara Bophut Koh Samui Resort, also owned by MINT.
The movie is scheduled to be released this week, but MINT has already seen increased demand since last year. People are talking about White Lotus, wanting to see the filming locations and experience them. In the movie, MINT is seeing a 40% increase in room rates, which is very strong for them. Therefore, MINT believes this trend will continue this year and in the following years. More importantly, it will reposition Thailand as a high-end tourist destination, rather than just for backpackers and lower-end tourists.
“So, I think as the tourism landscape in Thailand changes, we are pushing Thailand to become a high-end tourist destination. Of course, everyone knows that Thailand is one of the top five tourist destinations in the world, and this will help us attract high-end tourists from the United States, Europe, and other countries to Thailand, and they will pay higher rates for services.”
Clear Future Goals
“For 2027, we are discussing the growth of our portfolio. We will add another 280 hotels in addition to our current portfolio. We will add 1,500 more restaurants to Minor’s food business group, and more than 50% of this growth will come from the ‘asset right’ strategy. Because Minor has always adhered to the ‘asset right’ strategy, and I think that because our brands are very strong today, the brands have a lot of equity. Therefore, our brands can expand to new countries and new regions under management contracts, where we do not need to invest our own capital. This helps us preserve cash and also allows us to enter high-margin areas.”
“So, more than 50% of this growth will come from the ‘asset right’ strategy. In terms of financial growth, we expect revenue to grow in the high single digits. As you know, we have a very high revenue base today, but we will increase our revenue again in the high single digits. Our profit will continue to grow at 15-20% CAGR, which has always been our target.”
“And the important goal is to reduce the ratio of interest-bearing debt to equity to 0.75 and the ratio of interest-bearing debt to EBITDA to below 4 times. With ROIC, our goal is to reach 12% because we achieved our goal in 2024. Therefore, we have increased our target by 2027 to achieve an ROIC of more than 12%.”
“These are some of the areas where we currently have hotels, which are the areas we have for MINT, including luxury cruises and trains, which we will announce in the coming months regarding the launch of Anantara luxury cruises, in addition to the cruises we currently have. We also have the Bohen boat in Laos, and we also have a floating boat in Bangkok. But what we plan to do is to brand Anantara luxury cruises as a top-tier cruise brand, which will help with slow travel and new, interesting areas like the United States, where we don’t have any hotels.”
Besides one hotel, MINT hopes to expand its business there more. Like Mexico, they will have more new projects in the future. Turks and Caicos, Cuba, which is also a new project in the future. In the Middle East and the United Arab Emirates, MINT have Bahrain, Oman, Qatar that are opening. Singapore, Japan, MINT just signed a joint venture agreement with Royal Holdings 2 weeks ago and hopes to launch their brands there. While in India, they are also exploring new hotels. MINT already opened one hotel in India last year, and Saudi Arabia, which is growing strongly, and MINT also has strong projects in Saudi Arabia as well.
“And finally, I think this is our roadmap. In 2024, last year, we had 562 hotels and 2,699 restaurants, or almost 2,700. In 2027, we aim to have 850 hotels and 4,000 restaurants. I think our roadmap is quite strong for hotels, and in 2029, our goal is to have approximately 1,000 hotels and 4,500 restaurants. This is what we anticipate Minor will become one of the major players in both the hotel and food sectors in the coming years.”
Aggressive Expansion Plan:
MINT plans to aggressively expand its business over the next 5 years (2025-2029) with the following goals:
- Increase the number of hotels: Expand the hotel portfolio by adding another 280 hotels worldwide by 2027, bringing the total number of hotels in the group to 850, and increasing to 1,000 by 2029.
- Expand the restaurant network: Add 1,500 more restaurants by 2027, bringing the total number of restaurants in the group to 4,000, and increasing to 4,500 by 2029.
- Emphasize the “Asset Right” strategy: More than 50% of the growth will come from the Asset Right strategy, or expanding the business without investing all of its own capital, but leveraging the strength of the brand in management contracts.
- Launch luxury cruises: Prepare to launch luxury cruises under the “Anantara” brand to meet the demand of the high-end tourism market and the Slow Travel trend.
- Expand High-End customer: Being the filming location for White Lotus Season 3 helped to boost Thailand’s image as a high-end tourism destination, increase hotel occupancy demand and higher room rates.
Financial Goals:
MINT sets key financial goals as follows:
- Revenue Growth: Grow at a high single-digit rate.
- Profit Growth: Grow 15-20% per year (CAGR).
- Reduce D/E: Reduce D/E to 0.75.
- Reduce Debt to EBITDA: Reduce the ratio of interest-bearing debt to EBITDA to below 4 times.
- Increase ROIC: Increase ROIC to 12% by 2027 (from exceeding the 10% target already in 2024).
REIT Fundraising Plan:
“In the coming months, MINT will launch a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) by the end of 2025, subject to restructuring plans, structuring of the trust, and regulations in Thailand. The size of this trust is approximately US$1.5 billion, which will give us approximately US$700 million in cash to reduce debt and use for future business expansion.”
“We have several types of assets that we are considering to include in the trust. We need to decide based on the restructuring plan which portion of the assets we will put into the trust. We have been working on this for 6 months, so we have made a lot of progress. It depends on structuring the trust according to regulations. Then we will decide on the type of assets to be assigned to the trust.”
MINT demonstrates its strength and commitment to being a leader in the global hotel and food business with excellent performance, an aggressive business expansion plan, and challenging financial goals. The REIT issuance will be another important step that will help strengthen the company’s financial position and support future growth.
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