ITC’s long-anticipated hotel business demerger became official on January 6, marking a pivotal move to unlock shareholder value. ITC shareholders will hold 1 ITC Hotels share for every 10 ITC shares. While live trading for ITC Hotels is still pending, its shares are expected to debut within 60 days, bringing it into the fold of the Nifty 50 and Sensex indices. The market’s reaction was swift. ITC shares adjusted to ₹455.60 on the NSE and ₹455 on the BSE, shedding over 5% during a special price discovery session. Investors are recalibrating after the demerger, but the strategic rationale seems solid: ITC Hotels is stepping into the spotlight with a zero-debt balance sheet and ₹1,500 crore in cash reserves to fund growth and manage contingencies. On the expansion front, ITC Hotels has ambitious plans. The company is targeting a portfolio of 200 hotels with over 18,000 keys in five years, leveraging an asset-light model. Recent achievements include 28 managed hotels launched in the past two years, with more than one property set to open every month for the next two years. Major projects in the pipeline include a sprawling greenfield property in Puri and expansions in Bhubaneswar, alongside a robust strategic land bank. The focus is on scaling up managed properties, which will make up two-thirds of the portfolio. With these, ITC Hotels aims to more than double its management fees by FY30. Coupled with high-potential occupancy rates and newer inventory, there’s room for significant RevPAR growth, making this a well-calculated step. For ITC shareholders, the demerger opens up a direct play into India’s expanding hospitality sector, with ITC Hotels poised for robust growth. It’s a fresh start for the hospitality arm, and all eyes are on its upcoming stock market debut and execution of its aggressive expansion plans.