Lemon Tree Hotels stock show hinges on a costly makeover

Patchy progress

- Manvi Agarwal

Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd stock hit a fresh 52-week high of ₹174.90 on Monday, partly on optimism around its Aurika expansion. It recently won a Delhi Development Authority e-auction for licence rights to a 2.25-acre land in Nehru Place, New Delhi, to build a five-star hotel.

Lemon Tree is renovating thousands of rooms and preparing to spin off its asset-heavy arm, Fleur Hotels. The renovation is pricey, soaking up about 6% of revenue, with large properties in Delhi, Hyderabad and Bengaluru being upgraded. Nearly two-thirds of the 4,300 rooms to be upgraded, or about 40% of operational keys, have been refurbished in two-and-a-half years, with the rest to be completed by October 2026.