Hotel Leela zooms 73% in three days as Thailand's Minor eyes majority stake

The stock surged 20% to Rs 15.28 on the BSE, gaining 73% from Rs 8.85 on Friday.

Shares of Hotel Leela Venture surged 20% to Rs 15.28 on the BSE in intra-day trade on reports that a consortium, including Thailand’s Minor International, is considering an investment of about Rs 2.5 billion ($350 million) to acquire a majority stake in Indian hospitality firm.

The stock has zoomed 73% in past three trading days from Rs 8.85 on November 22, 2018. It touched a multi-year low of Rs 8.61 last Friday in intra-day trade on the BSE.

Till 10:22 am; the trading volumes on the counter jumped more than five-fold with a combined 7.06 million equity shares changed hands on the BSE and NSE so far. There were pending buy orders for 361,236 shares on both the exchanges.

“The company and the lenders are evaluating various offers, so as to achieve maximization of value of all the stakeholders and there is no binding contract with any investor as on date either for investment in the company or for purchase of company’s assets. We will notify the stock exchanges as and when any binding agreement is finalised,” Hotel Leela Venture said in clarification of the news report.



In past six months, the stock had underperformed the market by falling 51% after reported a weak set of numbers, as compared to 2% decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. The company posted a standalone net loss of Rs 1.33 billion during first half (April-September) of the current financial year 2018-19. It had loss of Rs 481 million during the same period last fiscal.

The company is one of the leading players in the Indian hospitality industry. The company operates in both, the leisure and business sectors. The Leela palaces and resorts include a chain of five star luxury hotels and resorts. The company properties include The Leela Kempinski in Mumbai, The Leela Palace in Goa, The Leela Palace Kempinski in Bangalore and The Leela Kovalam in Kerala.

The stock ended at Rs 15 apiece on BSE, up 20 per cent.