Minor eyes Leelaventure for US$350m
Date: November 2018
Location: 9 luxury hotels across India, some owned and some managed.
Name: Hotel Leelaventure Group
No. of Keys: 2,599
Seller: Leelaventura and its’ banks/creditors.
Buyer: A consortium including Minor Hotels is planning a USD350m bid for Hotel Leelaventure. The consortium bid includes partner Trinity White City Ventures, reports Bloomberg.
Leelaventure currently operates hotels across India. In September, the highly indebted group defaulted on quarterly loan interest payments.
The proposed bid includes a mix of equity and debt. The consortium would end up with a majority stake in Mumbai-based Hotel Leelaventure if the transaction proceeds.
Its’ luxury properties include The Leela Palace Udaipur, situated on picturesque Lake Pichola, and The Leela Kovalam, located on a beachside cliff in the southern state of Kerala.
“Minor is always on the lookout for good investment opportunities, which includes Hotel Leela,” Dillip Rajakarier, chief executive officer of Minor’s hotel unit, said by phone Friday. “But nothing is set in stone. We are currently exploring the option.”
A representative for Trinity confirmed the plan. A spokeswoman for Leelaventure said “right now there is nothing that we can share,” adding the company will make an official announcement “once anything in finalised and we move towards a decision.”
Minor has been expanding through acquisitions, spending 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion) this year to take control of Spanish chain NH Hotel Group SA. Shares of Minor have fallen 21 percent in Bangkok trading this year, giving the company a market value of about $4.9 billion.
Trinity White City Ventures, the family office of Shahal Khan, was behind an aborted attempt to acquire New York’s iconic Plaza Hotel earlier this year. The $600 million deal fell apart amid a series of lawsuits over the sale process, and the historic property was eventually sold to a Qatari state-owned company.
Price: US$350m
Price per Key: US$134,667
THPT Comment: Well there’s certainly no holding Minor Hotels – MINT back, fresh from it’s foray into Spain with NH Hotels. Sadly Leela lost more than it’s chairman when Captain C.P. Krishnan Nair passed away in 2014…it lost the steady hand on the tiller. At this price, not a bad deal.
First Seen: Bloomberg
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