The Rs 73.1 crore Bharat Hotels Ltd, promoted by Lalit Suri, is contemplating delisting of the company from the stock exchanges by the end of the current financial year.
The company has also etched out a major expansion plan envisaging forays into the international market, acquiring some government properties and entering into the telecom and entertainment sectors.
"By the end of the current financial year we (Bharat Hotels) may delist from the exchanges, " Lalit Suri, chairman and managing director, Bharat Hotels Limited, told reporters today, adding, "If the market condition does not improve, we are of the view there is no need to be listed in the market as it will rather spoil the market capitalisation of the company."
The company is currently listed on the Delhi Stock Exchange, Mumbai Stock Exchange, the National Stock Exchange and Luxembourg Stock Exchange.
According to Suri, "The company will also make an open offer for the GDRs listed in the Luxembourg Stock Exchange as also to the Indian shareholders."
In Bharat Hotels, the promoters hold about 76 per cent, the public about 8 per cent, while the rest is held by associates of the Suris. The company went for an initial public offering in 1981.
Dwelling on expansion plans, Suri said the company has submitted expression of interest (EoI) in participating in the disinvestment of five government-owned hotels and the catering arm of Hotel Corporation of India, Chef Air, and building a film studio in Srinagar.
EoIs have been submitted for HCI-owned Centaur, New Delhi, Centaur Srinagar and ITDC-owned Laxmivilas Palace, Udaipur, Janpath Hotel New Delhi and Ashoka Kovalam.
"We expect to get at least three properties," Suri said, pointing out that acquisitions may cost between Rs 300-400 crore.
The company has tied up loans to the tune of Rs 300 crore from the Punjab National Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank and Lord Krishna Bank to fund its expansion plans, apart from having cash reserves of about Rs 110 crore of its own.
Bharat Hotels' proposed international forays, in association with Mumbai-based construction magnate Rajan Kilachand, will be to build a property as part of the Golden Palm project in Dubai. "We have been given the permission to build one of the two hotels that is planned as part of the Golden Palm project in Dubai," Suri said adding that the company has been given a 99 year lease of land for the project.
Besides, the company will start two new properties in India, one in Mumbai and another in Goa, by the end of the year. In Mumbai, the company is currently constructing a 400 room property called Grand Intercontinental Mumbai, with an investment outlay of about Rs. 250 crore.
The Goa hotel, Goa Grand Intercontinental, an 86-acre property, is being built with an investment of about Rs 100 crore. Suri said the company has taken a loan to the tune of only Rs. 50 crore to fund the building on new properties, while the balance is being funded by internal accruals. The company currently has reserves of about Rs. 220 crore.
The company currently has two properties, the Grand Intercontinental in Delhi and the Grand Palace Intercontinental in Srinagar.
