Leading Hotels and Real Estate Firms Vie for JW Marriott Bengaluru

Indian Hotels, EIH, and ITC Hotels are among the leading hospitality companies that have expressed interest in acquiring the luxury hotel JW Marriott in Bengaluru, according to documents seen by ET.

As many as 40 companies, mostly from the hospitality and real estate sectors, have submitted expressions of interest in a sale process overseen by the bankruptcy court. The five-star hotel, owned by the Advantage Raheja Group, has 281 rooms and is located in the heart of the city.

Other leading players in the fray include Manipal Health Systems, Chalet Hotels, SAMHI Hotels, Oberoi Realty, Unisons Hotels, and Shree Naman Developers. Financial investors such as Brookfield Advisors India, JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction, and Kotak Alternate Asset Managers have also shown interest.

Resolution professional Jayesh Sanghrajka declined to comment on the offers. Indian Hotels, EIH, and ITC Hotels did not respond to ET's queries.

Gstaad Hotels, the Advantage Raheja Group company that owns JW Marriott in Bengaluru, is undergoing a corporate insolvency process after the National Company Law Tribunal accepted Omkara Asset Reconstruction's petition.

In December 2017, Piramal Finance sanctioned a ₹600 crore loan to Gstaad Hotels and another Advantage Raheja Group company, Neo Capricorn Plaza. In December 2022, Piramal Finance sold its debt to Omkara ARC. The new lender issued a recall notice for ₹666.5 crore. On failure to repay the debt, it moved the bankruptcy court for recovery of dues, according to the NCLT order.

The resolution professional, Sanghrajka, has verified claims amounting to ₹1,123.6 crore. Omkara ARC is the largest secured debtholder with a 96% share, while Global Hospitality holds 3% and 1% remains unverified.

Since Omkara ARC has the largest debt, it will have a greater say in choosing the buyer. This is because the bankruptcy law requires consent from at least 66% of debtholders to pass any major resolution.

In the last two years, a handful of luxury hotels have been sold under the bankruptcy law. Among them, Centaur Hotel in Juhu, Mumbai, was acquired by Macrotech Developers for nearly ₹800 crore and Westin Hotel in Kolkata was taken over by Shri Ram Multicom for ₹301 crore.