Piramal Capital invests Rs 650cr in Samhi Group

Piramal Capital and Housing Finance, the wholly owned subsidiary of Piramal Enterprises, today said it has invested Rs 650 crore in the Gurgaon-based Samhi Group.

Samhi Group owns around 29 hotels and has marquee investors.

"This structured debt investment will allow Samhi Group to support their growth plans and refinance existing lenders across three assets, The Courtyard and Fairfield by Marriott in Bangalore, the Sheraton in Hyderabad and the Hyatt Regency in Pune," it said in a statement.

This is the third significant investment made by Piramal Capital and Housing Finance in the hospitality sector over last six months.

It had invested Rs 600 crore with the Gurgaon-based Vatika Group (against the Westin Gurgaon and the Westin Sohna) and Rs 600 crore with Advantage Raheja Group (against the JW Marriott, Bangalore and the Crowne Plaza, Pune)and all loans are against operational assets.

The company has also concluded five other transactions worth Rs 450 crore against five hotel assets, (three operational and two in final stages of construction and fit out) operated by top tier brands like Taj, Hyatt, Radisson across regions like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Shimla and Goa.

Of this, Rs 100 crore will be extended as last mile funding towards the completion of the first Taj Luxury Resort in Himachal Pradesh coming up in Theog, near Shimla, that is expected to be operational within the next six to nine months.

"Over a span of 6 months, we have deployed Rs 2000 crore towards the hospitality sector as we scale our offerings within this vertical to reach a target book size of Rs 10,000 crore in the next three years. The industry is firmly on a path of growth, ably supported both domestic and foreign tourism, has higher disposable income and is witnessing a general change in spending habits of target customers," Piramal Capital and Housing Finance managing director Khushru Jijina said.