Hotel Leela to sell Kerala property for Rs 500 crore

Mumbai: Five-star hotel chain Hotel Leelaventure is set to sell its property in Kovalam In Kerala for Rs 500 crore  to cut its debt, the Economic Times paper said on Thursday citing the group’s Chairman CP Krishnan Nair. The property, Leela Resorts Kovalam, is being sold to non-resident Indian industrialist Ravi Pillai, the paper said, adding Leela will subsequently enter into a management contract with Pillai to manage the property for 30 years. The paper said Hotel Leela has a debt of Rs 3,830 crore   at the end of FY11 and has an ongoing capital expenditure plan of more than Rs 4000 crore. [caption id=“attachment_58723” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The property, Leela Resorts Kovalam, is being sold to non-resident Indian industrialist Ravi Pillai, the paper said. Photo from Flickr/Creative Commons”]  [/caption] In April, the firm had launched a 260-room property in Delhi, and plans to open one in Chennai later this year. In March, the hotel chain had said it plans to raise Rs 950 crore  by selling and developing land for residential purposes. The plan includes sale of a commercial park in Chennai. The company had last month executed a joint venture with Prestige Estate Projects to develop premium apartments on part of its land bank in Bangalore. Hotel Leela expects to generate about Rs 1,500 crore over 4 years through this development. Late on Wednesday, Hotel Leela reported a net loss for the quarter ended June on higher interest and depreciation costs due to the opening of the New Delhi property. On Thursday, shares in the company fell more than 7 percent in early trades reacting to the results. At 10:56 a.m., the stock was down 4.69 percent at 43.65 rupees in a Mumbai market that was down 0.3 percent. Reuters