Asset-light

A business that generates revenue with little owned capital, usually by renting, franchising or outsourcing the assets it uses.

A hotel company that manages its properties without owning them might carry ₹1,200 crore of assets against ₹4,800 crore of system revenue, the room and restaurant revenue of every hotel it runs, which is far larger than its own fee income. An owner of the same hotels would carry property worth roughly three times that revenue, about ₹14,400 crore, so the manager runs the system on a twelfth of the assets.

Its appeal is arithmetic. Lower capital produces higher returns on capital and faster growth for the same funding, so franchising spread through hotels, restaurants and retail everywhere.

The label often hides that the capital didn't disappear. It moved. A retailer that sold its stores and leased them back has the same economics and a lease liability, and after the lease accounting change that liability is on the balance sheet where it belongs.

Ask who owns the asset and who bears the risk. Those can be different people.