Ventive Hospitality is in discussions to acquire two or three large luxury hotels in India, according to the Economic Times.
The company is a publicly traded joint venture between Blackstone and Panchshil Realty.
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CEO Ranjit Batra said: “We are looking at two or three big-box hotels, which will deliver a solid EBIDTA of Rs 1bn-plus. We are in talks with two to three large hotels at this moment.
“We expect to reach our target through a combination of acquisitions and organic development.”
The prospective transactions follow earlier portfolio expansion moves.
Last year, Ventive moved to secure a 76% equity interest in Soham Leisure Ventures, thereby gaining control of the Hilton Goa Resort alongside real estate in the state.
More recently, the enterprise entered into an agreement to purchase Kelzai Eco Reserves Private Limited outright for Rs2.8bn ($29.6m) in cash, valuing the business at an enterprise value of Rs4.6bn, aimed at entering the luxury eco-resort and branded villa segment.
At present, Ventive’s operational footprint encompasses the Ritz Carlton, JW Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott, and DoubleTree by Hilton in Pune, alongside international holdings in the Maldives comprising Conrad, Anantara, and Raaya properties.
Batra added: “Currently, we have 14 assets and roughly 2,200 keys. We have grown all of this over the last five years. Going forward, we are targeting a portfolio of 4,000-plus keys.
“We have around 360 keys under construction and about 1,100 keys in the right-of-first-offer arrangement pipeline with promoters.”
Of the 14 operational properties within the group, seven were developed internally by Panchshil, whereas the remainder were brought in via external acquisitions.
Batra indicated that development plans also include introducing the Ritz Carlton Reserve format to the domestic market, with a site selected in the Sahyadri hills.
“Ritz-Carlton Reserve is a step above Ritz-Carlton. There are only about 10 in the world. We are doing two of them, one in Sri Lanka and one in India,” said Batra.
“The one in India will come up in the Sahyadri Hills. It has about 450 acres of beautiful land, surrounded by the forest on three sides. It will be a branded residence associated with the Ritz-Carlton Reserve concept,” he added.
Additional pipeline activity involves a planned hotel in Varanasi and the commercial repositioning of an asset in Bengaluru’s Whitefield submarket.
On the regulatory front, statutory mandates from SEBI oblige the entity to dilute promoter equity to comply with the 25% minimum public float threshold within three years of listing.
“We have two routes. We can do a QIP or an OFS. We will evaluate the options. We have about 13 months,” said Batra.
“By December 2027, we need to be at 75%. Currently, we are at 89%. If we do a few big acquisitions, then we would look at a QIP,” he added.
