Waterways Leisure Tourism Limited — the company that runs India’s homegrown ocean cruise line Cordelia Cruises — is hitting the primary market with a mainboard IPO. This is a pure fresh issue aggregating up to ₹585 crore (₹5,850 million), with shares set to list on both the BSE and NSE. Below is a complete, plain-language breakdown of the business, its money-making model, supply chain, financials, expansion plans, shareholding and the risks every investor should weigh before applying.
IPO Snapshot
| Company | Waterways Leisure Tourism Ltd (Cordelia Cruises) |
| Issue Type | Book-built mainboard IPO (100% fresh issue, no OFS) |
| Total Issue Size | Up to ₹585 crore (₹5,850 million) |
| Face Value | ₹10 per share |
| Price Band | To be announced |
| Anchor Bidding | Monday, June 22, 2026 |
| Issue Opens | Tuesday, June 23, 2026 |
| Issue Closes | Thursday, June 25, 2026 |
| Listing At | BSE & NSE (BSE is designated exchange) |
| Lead Manager | Centrum Broking Limited |
| Registrar | MUFG Intime India (formerly Link Intime) |
One important structural point: this issue is being made under Regulation 6(2) of the SEBI ICDR Regulations, which applies because the company does not meet the profitability and net-tangible-asset track record required under Regulation 6(1). As a result, at least 75% is reserved for Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIBs), not more than 15% for Non-Institutional Investors, and not more than 10% for Retail Individual Investors. In practical terms, the retail allocation here is smaller than in a standard profitable mainboard IPO.
What the Company Actually Does
Cordelia Cruises is, in its own description from the prospectus, one of India’s domestic ocean cruise operators. The company runs a single cruise ship called MV Empress and, by value, claimed roughly a 79% share of India’s overnight ocean and coastal cruise market in Fiscal 2025 (per a CRISIL report commissioned by the company). Since its launch in September 2021, the vessel has carried 730,819 guests and covered more than 3.2 lakh nautical miles along the Indian coastline and surrounding islands, as of March 31, 2026.
The ship sails mainly to domestic destinations — Mumbai, Goa, Kochi, Chennai, Lakshadweep, Visakhapatnam and Puducherry — and also runs international itineraries to Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, with new Colombo and Maldives routes from Kochi planned from October 2026. Itineraries range from 2-night to 10-night voyages, and the positioning is built around an “Indian experience” — Indian cuisine (including Jain options), Bollywood-themed live shows, and amenities such as a casino, spa, kids’ academy, rock-climbing wall, swimming pools and retail outlets.
The Vessel: MV Empress
| Built | 1990 (around 35 years old) |
| Passenger Capacity | 2,005 guests |
| Cabins | 796 total (1 chairman’s suite, 5 suites, 63 mini-suites, 416 ocean-view, 311 interior) |
| Cabin Pricing | ₹34,164/night (interior) to ₹1,51,111/night (chairman suite), dynamic |
| Flag / Registry | Bahamas |
| Gross Tonnage | 48,563 GT |
A structural quirk worth understanding: the company operates the ship, but the ship is owned by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bay Cruise Investments Inc. (BCII), under a time-charter arrangement at USD 3,500 per day. BCII became a 100% subsidiary only in February 2025.
Products & Revenue Streams
Revenue comes from two main buckets — the cruise ticket and onboard spending.
| Revenue Source | FY26 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Cruise ticket sales | ₹528.86 cr | 91.22% |
| Onboard revenue | ₹50.58 cr | 8.72% |
| Commission income | ₹0.31 cr | 0.05% |
The ticket covers the cabin, food-court and Starlight restaurant meals, pool and gym access, and live shows. Onboard revenue layers on specialty dining (Chopstix, International Grill), paid shows, shore excursions, Wi-Fi, spa, casino and the gaming arcade. The company also charters the ship for events (it once hosted “Sunburn X Cordelia Cruise”) and runs MICE and wedding packages. Note the heavy concentration: more than nine of every ten rupees of revenue comes from ticket sales alone.
Customers & Booking Mix
Guests are a mix of Indian travellers and international visitors to India. The company sells most cabins directly — through its website, app and a call centre staffed by 148 “cruise holiday experts” — with the rest via third-party travel agents.
| Channel | FY26 | FY25 | FY24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct bookings | 62.25% | 62.98% | 59.96% |
| Via travel agents | 37.75% | 37.02% | 40.04% |
A higher direct-booking share helps margins because the company avoids agent commissions and gets direct customer engagement.
Vendors & Supply Chain — the Outsourced Model
This is the most important thing to understand about how Cordelia runs. The company keeps an “asset-light, outsourced” structure — it does not directly employ most of the ship’s crew or run kitchens and entertainment in-house. Instead, the heavy operational lifting sits with four key third-party providers:
| Provider | Role | FY26 Spend |
|---|---|---|
| SA Cruise Services Ltd | Hospitality, F&B, housekeeping, cabin services | ₹49.93 cr |
| Apollo Export Warehouse LLC* | Purchasing, logistics, customs, warehousing, insurance | ₹49.95 cr |
| Wizcraft Entertainment Agency | Live shows, onboard entertainment, events | ₹21.02 cr |
| Campbell Cruise & Yacht Mgmt | Technical management, crew, dry-docking, repairs | Via subsidiary |
*Apollo’s figure includes its Indian arm, Asturias Ship Chandlers Pvt Ltd.
On top of these, fuel (bunker) is a critical input. The company sources it from a limited number of suppliers, primarily Indian state-owned oil companies. Fuel cost was ₹83.90 crore in FY26 (₹93.33 crore in FY25). Fuel price swings flow straight into operating cost and are largely outside the company’s control. The outsourced model keeps fixed staff costs low and lets the company scale with demand, but it also creates heavy dependence on a small set of partners.
Fleet Expansion — Future Goals
The single-ship limitation is what this IPO is really about. The company has signed up two additional vessels on lease — Norwegian Sky (2,004 guests, planned for FY27) and Norwegian Sun (1,936 guests, planned for FY28). Both are diesel-electric, Bahamas-flagged, and were built in 1999 and 2001 respectively. They are taken on bareboat charter via the company’s subsidiary structure and then routed through a GIFT City step-down subsidiary, Baycruise Shipping and Leasing (IFSC) Pvt Ltd. The total lease commitment is USD 160 million per vessel over a 10-year period.
Industry Backdrop
India’s overnight ocean and coastal cruise market was valued at about ₹830 crore in FY25 but, per the CRISIL report, is estimated to have declined roughly 12% to ₹732.5 crore in FY26 on global travel softness, fuel volatility and geopolitical disruption. The medium-term projection is a recovery to ₹1,820–2,250 crore by FY31 (a 20–25% CAGR), supported by the government’s Cruise Bharat Mission, which targets doubling cruise passenger traffic by 2029. Cruise penetration in India is around 0.01% versus roughly 5.7% in North America — the bull case rests on closing that gap.
Financial Performance (Consolidated, Restated)
| ₹ crore | FY26 | FY25 | FY24 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue from operations | 579.75 | 590.61 | 444.06 |
| EBITDA | 117.48 | 215.46 | 111.15 |
| EBITDA Margin | 20% | 36% | 25% |
| Profit / (Loss) After Tax | 52.14 | 168.19 | (122.73) |
| EPS (₹, basic & diluted) | 8.02 | 26.00 | (18.97) |
| Net Worth | 80.20 | 32.78 | (118.07) |
| Total Debt | 101.90 | 30.44 | 5.18 |
| Debt-to-Equity | 1.27x | 0.93x | (0.04)x |
A few things stand out and deserve careful reading:
First, the profit trend is not a clean upward line. FY24 was a loss of ₹122.73 crore. FY25 swung to a large profit, but that figure included an exceptional gain of ₹75.59 crore; without it the operating picture is more modest. In FY26, revenue was roughly flat versus FY25, EBITDA margin compressed from 36% to 20%, and PAT fell to ₹52.14 crore. Second, net worth was negative as recently as FY24, and the company’s statutory auditors flagged a material uncertainty related to going concern in the FY24 audit report, along with certain other qualifications and emphasis-of-matter remarks. Third, debt has been rising as the company gears up for expansion. The passenger load factor was 84.99% in FY26, down from 91.63% in FY25.
Objects of the Issue (Use of Funds)
| Purpose | Amount |
|---|---|
| Lease deposit, advance & monthly lease payments for new vessels (via Baycruise IFSC) | ₹480.01 cr |
| General corporate purposes | Balance (≤25% of gross) |
Note that since this is a fresh issue, all proceeds go to the company (not to selling shareholders). The bulk funds the two new leased ships rather than buying assets outright. The fund deployment has not been appraised by any bank or independent agency, and is based on management estimates.
Shareholding Pattern (Pre-Issue)
| Shareholder | Pre-Issue Stake |
|---|---|
| Global Shipping & Leisure Ltd (Corporate Promoter) | 99.27% |
| Rajesh Chandumal Hotwani (Promoter) | Negligible |
| Jurgen Bailom (Chairman, CEO & ED) | 0.15% |
| Other top shareholders & management | ~0.32% |
Promoters hold 99.27% before the IPO. The company is led by Jurgen Bailom (Chairman, CEO and Executive Director), a hospitality and cruise-industry veteran and founding member of the Indian Cruise Lines Association. As of March 31, 2026 the company had 245 permanent employees — but 148 of them are B2C holiday cruise experts in the call centre, since the actual ship crew is largely outsourced.
Key Risk Factors
The prospectus lists these among the most significant concerns:
- Single-vessel dependence: All operations currently run on one ship, MV Empress. Any disruption (mechanical, regulatory, weather, dry-docking) directly hits revenue.
- Old ship: MV Empress was built in 1990 — about 35 years old — and the prospectus states its balance estimated life is “not available.”
- Revenue concentration: Over 91% of revenue is from cruise tickets; any dip in occupancy or pricing hurts disproportionately.
- Going-concern remark: Auditors flagg
