Mumbai, 20, September 2015:  Keenly pursuing asset-light strategy, Vivek Nair the CMD of Hotel Leela Venture Ltd (HLVL), at a press conference yesterday, announced the company’s decision to sell its 206-key hotel in Goa, The Leela Goa, on a slump sale basis for a lumpsum consideration of INR 725cr to Ceres Hotels Pvt Ltd. A wholly owned subsidiary of MetTube Sdn Bhd Malaysia, Ceres Hotels is acquiring The Leela Goa by way of a business transfer agreement(BTA), report says. 

The acquisition is expected to occur by December 2015 (subject to certain conditions, regulatory approvals). HLVL will continue to manage and operate the Goa Hotel, pursuant to a Hotel and Operations Management agreement, and the Hotel will continue to be known as ‘The Leela Goa’. 

"This is the first step on our road map to pare down our debt and the first of our disinvestments. We have ambitious plans to follow an asset light strategy and plan to operate and manage more hotels." Mr. Nair said. Asked about speculation in the media about the sale of its Chennai property, Nair commented that HLVL was waiting for the Chennai market to stabilise and had not received the right valuation yet, adding that the Company may or may not sell their Chennai hotel. Nair underscored the fact that “the first choice of HLVL was to find a corporate- wide solution” to its debt repayment problem in the next few months to a year, rather than disinvestment of individual properties. 

HLVL has ambitious plans for the Delhi-Gurgaon region and expects to be the leader in the MICE segment through the combined offerings of three managed hotels there , offering the largest banquet facilities. HLVL already manages a 250-room hotel in Agra, and 40- guest room hotel in Jaipur. “Since these are brand new properties, we hope to attract superior occupancy rates compared to the older hotels there. We plan to make Agra a premier destination in the Golden Triangle, for weddings," Nair said.

Hotel Leelaventure is also exploring options to sell the 326-room Chennai hotel or bring in new investors at the corporate level as part of its debt restructuring plan. "We are working with JM Financial for a company-level solution and not unit by unit," Nair added.