the goan I network
PANAJI
The hotels division of Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) Limited, the Indian tobacco and FMCG giant, is set to significantly expand its footprint in Goa’s luxury hotel space at the start of the new (2018-19) tourism season with the scheduled takeover of the 250-room Park Hyatt property at Arossim-Cansaulim in September.
The takeover will culminate one of the most bitter but sparingly reported business acquisitions in the Hospitality industry. The legal tussle between the two hotel groups “ Blue Coast Hotels Ltd and ITC Ltd “ and the financial institution IFCI Ltd, lasted almost three years and traced a circuitous route from the judicial mechanism of the SARFAESI Act to the country’s highest judicial institution “ the Supreme Court of India.
Strangely, all the three companies are tight-lipped over the transaction. Emails sent to the hotel’s public relations division elicited a terse “we cannot respond to your queries at the moment” response.
Goa’s hotel industry is also maintaining a hush-hush silence over the impending change in ownership of the Park Hyatt Hotel although many confirmed they were in the know of the development.
ITC’s hotels division already has presence in the luxury hotel space in Goa. It operates the Fortune Miramar hotel in Panaji and the Fortune Acron Regina at Candolim, both five-star properties.
Blue Coast Hotels, the original owner of the hotel which built it from scratch two decades ago, had mortgaged the property for a loan of Rs 150-crore to fund its expansion plans. Following default of the loan in 2013, the lender IFCI Ltd took possession of it and
