Indian Hotels Acquires Control of Mumbai’s Sea Rock
By Sumit Sharma June 12 -- Indian Hotels Co., which runs the Taj Group of hotels, acquired control of Hotel Sea Rock in north Mumbai for 6.8 billion rupees ($143 million), to boost the rooms it can offer travelers to the country’s commercial hub. The nation’s biggest operator of hotels will spend 5 billion rupees in the next two years to tear down the building that’s been lying unused since the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai and turn it into a luxury hotel, Vice Chairman R.K. Krishna Kumar said in the city today. Mumbai-based Indian Hotels will meet the acquisition cost from the 14 billion rupees raised by selling stocks to shareholders last year, Chief Financial Officer Anil Goel said. The company plans to integrate the site with its existing property known as Taj Lands End, it said. The acquisition gives Indian Hotels room to expand in the northern suburb of Bandra, soon to be linked to the downtown area through a bridge over the Arabian Sea. “Within days of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link being set to open, we are delighted to announce that we are able to propose a world-class convention and hospitality centre,” Kumar said in a release accompanying the announcement. There are no pending lawsuits relating to the Sea Rock property, Kumar said. The hotel used to be a haunt of Bollywood film stars at the height of its renown and before it was closed following the bomb blasts in 1993. Landmark “It will be the most luxurious Mumbai has seen,” Kumar said. “It will be a landmark in that part of town, as the Taj is in south Mumbai, or as the Opera House is to Sydney.” Indian Hotels plans to spend another 3 billion rupees on other hotel projects during the year to March 31, he said. The company is keen to increase its stake in Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. and work with the group, Kumar said. Mumbai-based Indian Hotels owns 9.7 percent of Orient- Express and will “be happy” to raise its stake, he said. The two groups have had meetings at the highest level, he said. “We hope to continue the dialogue that will give us the right kind of chemistry to work together,” Kumar said. “I don’t think we should be talking about stakes alone. The problem in the beginning was the perception that we were moving in to make a hostile move on acquiring stakes and destroying the autonomy or independence of the company.” The Tata Group, which runs Indian Hotels, doesn’t make “hostile moves,” Kumar said. Indian Hotels, which runs 97 hotels across the globe, gets about a third of its revenue from international operations. Mumbai Taj The company expects to fully re-open the terrorist-hit Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai by the end of the year or in January, Kumar told reporters. The 106-year-old iconic hotel was damaged in the Nov. 26-29 attacks, along with another luxury hotel, the main railway terminal and sites elsewhere. The attacks damaged a large part of the heritage wing and destroyed paintings, chandeliers, silk carpets and wooden furniture at the hotel located next to the landmark Gateway of India. The hotel re-opened its tower wing in December. “We are trying to restore it with love and devotion and don’t want to rush,” Kumar said. “We want to see it as the most beautiful hotel in the world.” Revenue, Insurance The Mumbai Taj contributes about a fifth of Indian Hotels’ revenue, he said. The hotel is more than adequately covered by insurance, Goel said. The hotel has 62 percent occupancy, compared with 75 percent a year earlier, Kumar said. India’s economy, which grew 5.8 percent in the three months to March 31, may expand 7 percent in the fiscal that began April 1, the government has said. The economy could rebound to its 9 percent growth path, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the parliament on June 9. Following last year’s attacks and amid the global recession, overseas travelers canceled trips to India, hurting the travel and tourism industry. “The global community has seen the worst period over the past 18 months,” Kumar said. “The worst is over.” To contact the reporter on this story: Sumit Sharma in Mumbai at [email protected] _________________________________________________________________ Stay updated! Add Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace & Hi5 friends to your Windows Live network instantly. Add Now! http://profile.live.com/webactivities/?mkt=en-in --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
