Brookfield, a Canadian asset management company has bought the properties of Hotel Leela venture. The list includes its key hotel properties in big cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Udaipur and Chennai for a sum of Rs.3950 crore.
On Monday evening, Leela venture announced that the company’s hotel business with all the assets and liabilities of hotels located in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, and Udaipur were being acquired by a Canadian company.
The company also stated that the shareholders would be eligible for a consideration of Rs.300 crore from Brookfield on account of any intellectual property held by them that concerns to the assets that are being sold and also for certain business expansion services that the promoters have agreed to provide the investor.
Leela venture, which has debt exceeding Rs 3000 crore, notified shareholders that all borrowings of the company from banks and financial institutions would stand repaid after the completion of the transaction and lenders dues would be retired. The company will continue to operate the hotel in Mumbai and hold land in Hyderabad and operate the joint development project of residential apartments with Prestige Developers in Bangalore. Brookfield will have a right of first refusal over the company’s hotel in Mumbai as a part of the transaction, implying it will have the right to match the highest offer for the property in the eventuality of its sale at a later stage.
Vivek Nair, Chairman, and MD of The Leela venture is confident that the brand will be developed and further strengthened. The hotels will continue to be known for its unmatched services.
Ankur Gupta, MD, and head at India’s Brookfield Asset Management branch said he is looking forward to completing the transaction at the earliest while making sure that all operations remain unaffected. “We expect the Leela hotels to continue to be market leaders.”
Brookfield Asset Management globally owns and operates $350 billion worth of assets with interests in various sectors.
Earlier, a group of investors including Blackrock, SSG Capital, and RB Capital had also been in the affray for acquiring the hotels.