SAMHI Hotels eyes 4k more rooms post acquisitions

Goldman Sachs-backed SAMHI Hotels is eyeing an increase in inventory to 4,000 rooms following the acquisition of Premier Inn portfolio in 2017 and also the acquisition and subsequent rebranding of several hotels to Holiday Inn Express.

Currently, the investory is 3,000 rooms, this increase in is one of the highest by any Indian hotel ownership company in a single year, a release said here.

Backed by financial institutions like Sam Zell led Equity International, Goldman Sachs, GTI Capital and IFC (Member of the World Bank Group), SAMHI's growth to over 4,000 rooms ownership within a period of 8 years is the fastest ever by any hotel company in India.

 

The company had earlier indicated an investment of Rs 500 crore to boost its inventory including acquisition and the turnaround expenses and it confirmed that it is well on its way to execute on that plan.

By first quarter of FY20, SAMHI will have over 4,000 rooms available across hotels in India and operated by Marriott, IHG, and Hyatt.

"Indian hotel industry is showing strong signs of recovery and at the same time is also maturing to allow better risk-adjusted returns to the investors. The growth of aviation, expansion of office spaces across key Indian cities and increasing propensity for Indians to travel both for business and leisure is supporting a strong demand growth for hotels. However, the industry continues to be operationally intensive," SAMHI founder and CEO Ashish Jakhanwala said.

The industry has been reported to be in severe distress and with many of the companies going through the bankruptcy process, which has attracted the attention of several investors looking for distress acquisition opportunities, he added.

"Many investors just look at the size of distress while acquiring assets. We, however, believe in evaluating the potential future opportunity and not just the discount due to distress. Over years we have demonstrated ability to reposition and turnaround several hotel assets that we acquired. We believe such opportunities will continue to fuel our growth in the near term," he added.

SAMHI are currently present in 14 cities, working with 8 brand and have acquired 30 hotels, which were stressed properties and is now looking to focus on tier 1 and 2 cities in the coming years and planning to spend over Rs 200 crore in renovation and rebranding of these assets.