Hotel Leelaventure will make a preferential allotment of equity shares to its promoter — Leela Lace Software Solutions — to raise Rs 100 crore.
The promoter group entity is entitled to receive 3,08,26,140 equity shares of Rs 2 each at a premium of Rs 30.44 a share. The company approved the preferential allotment at its board of director’s meeting held on Thursday evening.
Besides, the Mumbai-based hospitality company also stated that the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) empowered group has accepted its proposal to restructure the debt.
The hotel chain, which is weighed down by a debt of Rs 4,300 crore, is seeking a debt recast from a consortium of 17 banks.
Measures
The company has launched initiatives to bring down its debt. These include planning future expansions through asset light strategy (management contracts) and selling off non-core real estate properties.
Like its hotels in Gurgaon and Kovalam, the company is planning to take up new properties on management contracts.
“Such projects (management contracts) are planned in Jaipur, Bangalore (near the international airport) and Noida.
“Also, the company has land banks in Agra (facing the Taj Mahal) and Lake Ashtamudi, close to its Kovalam Beach Resort,” Vivek Nair, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Hotel Leelaventure, told this paper earlier. The company recently opened its new property in Chennai.
It is also evaluating options of entering into the four and five star hotel category in Tier-2 cities in India under a different brand name.
For further monetisation, the company has identified three land assets and an office space in Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai to be sold off.
The company’s scrip closed at Rs 28.60 on Friday, up 0.35 per cent from the previous close on the BSE.