Indian Hotels Q4 net falls 31 pct as costs rise

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian Hotels Co Ltd , part of the diversified Tata conglomerate, posted a 31 percent fall in quarterly net profit on Monday, hurt by higher expenses.

The company, which owns and operates the chain of Taj hotels and resorts worldwide, earned 652.1 million rupees for the three months ended in March, compared with 939.3 million rupees a year earlier.

Net sales rose 6 percent to 5.6 billion rupees, the company, whose flagship Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai overlooks the city's harbour and iconic Gateway of India arch, said.

Analysts on average expected a profit of 656 million rupees on revenue of 5.64 billion rupees, Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S showed.

Shares in Indian Hotels, which has a market capitalisation of $779.3 million, ended down 0.35 percent at 56.8 rupees, before its results were announced. The benchmark index in Mumbai ended up 1.23 percent.

(Reporting by Aditi Shah; editing by Malini Menon)

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