Indian Hotels dips after making offer to acquire Orient Express

Indian Hotels Company has dipped 5% to Rs 66.95 on back of heavy volumes after the Tata Group Company made $1.86 billion offer to acquire the US-based international luxury hotels operator Orient Express.

“The directors have "in principle", subject to the necessary regulatory approvals, authorized the Company to make an offer to the board of directors of Orient-Express Hotels, seeking their consent for the Company acquiring the balance outstanding 93.1% Class A common Shares of Orient-Express Hotels Limited i.e. 100%,” Indian Hotels said in a filing.

Indian Hotels, which holds about 6.9% in Orient Express Hotels, proposes to finance the acquisition of balance shares and related transaction costs through a combination of debt and equity.

“The Company also has an agreement Montezemolo & Partners an important Italian company directly owned by the Montezemolo family who is the Manager of charme II Fund, which will be a minority shareholder in the Special Purpose Vehicle set up for the transaction,” it added.

The stock opened at Rs 69.90 and hit a low of Rs 66.80 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. As many as a combined 1.85 million shares have already changed hands on the counter in morning trades against an average 1.1 million shares that were traded daily in past two weeks.