India's largest real estate firm DLF today announced the sale of its luxury hospitality chain Amanresorts to its original founder Adrian Zecha for $358 million (or about Rs. 2,200 crore).
In a statement, DLF said its subsidiary, DLF Global Hospitality Ltd, has completed the sale of entire 100 per cent stake in Silverlink Resorts Ltd, which owns Amanresorts, to Aman Resorts Group Ltd for an enterprise value of $358 million.
VCCircle was the first to report that the deal will be closed around $350 million.
The deal excludes Lodhi Hotel in Delhi which will continue to remain a part of DLF Ltd.
The move, which paves way for DLF to exit from non-core business, will help the Delhi-head quartered realtor to reduce its debt.
In December 2012, DLF had signed a deal with Indonesian hotelier Zecha to sell Amanresorts for $300 million (about Rs.1,600 crore). Since the deal was not completed in the stipulated time-frame of June 2013, DLF walked out of the agreement.
Even after the expiry of the exclusivity contract, DLF was in discussion with Zecha and a few other potential investors to sell Amanresorts which has about 25 properties across the world.
Aman Resorts Group Ltd is a joint venture between Peak Hotels and Resorts Group Ltd and Adrian Zecha.
DLF's Executive Director - Finance Saurabh Chawla said, according to a PTI report, "This sale of business is another major milestone in DLF's strategy to focus on its core business of real estate and divest non-core businesses and assets."
To reduce debt and focus on core realty business, DLF has been selling its non-core assets since last three years. It has raised about Rs. 10,000 crore through divestment of its non-core assets that includes hotel plots, wind energy and insurance businesses, the report further added.
DLF's net debt stood at Rs 19,508 crore at the end of the September quarter of this fiscal and it had targeted to reduce the borrowing to Rs 17,500 crore be March this year.
In December last year, DLF sold its 74 per cent stake in the joint venture DLF Pramerica Life Insurance to Dewan Housing Finance for an estimated Rs 250 crore.
DLF also sold its wind turbine projects in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu - with a total capacity of 227 MW - for about Rs. 700 crore.
In other sell-offs, DLF had sold 17 acres of prime land in Mumbai to Lodha Developers for about Rs. 2,700 crore in August 2012, nearly four times higher than the price at which the company had bought this parcel seven years ago in 2005.
DLF had recorded a net profit of Rs 711.92 crore over a turnover of Rs.7,772.84 crore in 2012-13.