Al Habtoor willing to buy Leela Hotel Group

new delhi — Emirati business tycoon Rashid Al Habtoor has evinced interest in acquiring the Leela Group of Hotels in India with an equity infusion of about $600 million. He has made an offer in a letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the hotel.

Al Habtoor has offered to make the investment in Hotel Leelaventure Ltd through foreign direct investment and pay the entire debt of the lender institutions as well as the asset reconstruction company that might be approximately $600 million, including the open offer to the public for acquisition of their shares as per Sebi norms.

In the letter dated January 15 containing a “revised offer” to Jaitley, Al Habtoor, who had visited India last week, said: “We understand that time is an essence and the entire transaction has to be completed by March 31. We are therefore conducting a macro due diligence of the company.”

“Simultaneously, our legal team will work on the binding documents required for the transaction which can be executed on completion of due diligence procedures,” he said in the letter which also addressed Rajnish Kumar, chairman of SBI, the lender to the hotel, Vivek Nair, chairman and managing director of Leelaventure, and Anil Bhatia, managing director and CEO of JM Financial Asset Restructuring Company (JMARC).

In June last year, Leelaventure Board had approved an enabling resolution that would allow it to transfer a majority stake to JMARC.

Al Habtoor, with a personal networth of $550 million, is the founder and CEO of Al-Habtoor Trading Enterprises and owns the Habtoor hotel chain.

Enclosing the details of their net worth issued by their UK solicitors, he said his representative team would be pleased to visit India to meet Jaitley in order to take this forward.

He said the offer letter is valid for only seven days from January 15 and could be extended by request from the receivers and written approval from their side.