India Hospitality Corp. said on Tuesday it would buy an Indian restaurant firm and an airline catering company for about $110 million to tap demand in the fast-growing economy.
India Hospitality will buy Mars Restaurants Pvt. Ltd. and SkyGourmet Catering Pvt. Ltd. from affiliates of private equity firm Navis Capital Partners and private shareholders, it said in a statement.
The sellers will receive about $91.6 million in cash and the remainder in IHC ordinary shares. Additional payments may be made if the businesses achieve certain performance targets, it said. IHC, which was set up to buy Indian businesses in the leisure, hospitality, tourism and travel segments, will also buy from Navis, a restaurant chain called Nirula's and another hotel, it said to create an India-based hospitality company.
Mars operates two four-star Gordon House Hotels in India and owns restaurants including “Tendulkar's” and “All Stir Fry”.
SkyGourmet will expand to 12 locations from four by 2009, and increase aggregate capacity to 72,000 meals a day by 2009 from 25,000, it said.
Source : Reuters