Indian Hotels tries to woo Orient-Express with 40% premium

Indian Hotels hopes to be third-time-lucky when it comes to acquiring Orient-Express Hotels. Indian Hotels vice-chairman RK Krishna Kumar says that the latest USD 1.2-billion bid should win the day as it is at a handsome 40 percent premium.

He also told CNBC-TV18's Menaka Doshi that he expects to fund the acquisition by selling non-core assets. "In the previous two attempts at making the offer, no specific price was put on the table."

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Below is an edited transcript of the interview on CNBC-TV18.

Q: Now you are hoping a 40 percent premium to the current stock price is going to go in your favour?

A: We believe that it's a healthy and rich price. Now it is really up to the board of the company and this is not a hostile bid.

Q: But was it solicited?

A: No, it is not solicited. We don't expect to be solicited every time. If we wanted to make a hostile bid, we could have gone straight to the shareholders and made a bid. We think that this offer is very good for Orient Express and for the Taj group. It is up to the board of that company to take a decision.

Q: The last time they rebuffed you saying that didn’t want the acquisition to help enhance the non-performance of Indian Hotels' foreign units. I am just wondering why you think you have a chance yet again given the nature of the rebuff?

A: I don’t think we should really be too concerned about this year not being profitable for one particular hotel or for the Orient Express Group. This should be seen in a larger strategic context. We are bringing two great brands together.

Q: Are you not concerned about the fact that the economy is in a very difficult phase? The hospitality business is not doing very well and you are doing a transaction that is heavily leveraged?

A: We expect to be able to bring down leverage quite significantly over a period of year. There are specific plans that we have drawn up to reduce the leverage and a lot of it is quite possible for us to do.

Q: Can you share the amount of money offered for this deal and how you hope to bring the leverage down? What impact it will have on the Indian Hotels' balance-sheet?

A: We are talking about divestments of some assets which are not core. I was saying that this is a more strategic issue and it has got a certain amount of leverage.