Singapore sovereign wealth find GIC has acquired a 35% share of five hotels in India from Indonesian owner Samhi Hotel Investments for a total of 7.52 billion Indian rupees ($88.1 million).
Mint reports GIC will invest another 1.49 billion rupees into renovations for the hotels.
This investment by GIC is part of a longer-term plan for GIC and Samhi to "create a $300 million venture aimed at developing upscale hotel assets in India," Reuters reports.
Four of the hotels in this deal are in Bengaluru and one is in Pune in eastern India.
The stake places a value on the quintet of more than $251 million.
The hotels were previously under the ownership of Samhi divisions Ascent Hotels, Inmar Tourism & Hotel and Samhi JV Hotels.
They include the 170-room Courtyard by Marriott Bengaluru Outer Ring Road; 166-room Fairfield by Marriott Bengaluru Outer Ring Road; 222-room Hyatt Regency Pune & Residences, and 142-room Trinity Hotel Bengaluru.
The fifth hotel is an upcoming Westin-branded asset adjacent to the Trinity.
Samhi acquired the Trinity hotel for approximately $24.7 million in October of last year, according to CoStar data. Samhi acquired the Hyatt Regency Pune for approximately $47 million in February 2016, according to CoStar.
Mint reports that most of the renovation capital will be spent on the Trinity property, which will be in the same building as the upcoming Westin. The Courtyard and Fairfield hotels share a building, too.
Before this deal was announced, Samhi had a portfolio of 27 hotels and 4,048 keys in 12 Indian cities, many carrying Hyatt Hotels Corp., IHG Hotels & Resorts and Marriott International brands.
According to Reuters, Samhi will use some of the sale capital to offset debt.
Business consultancy Prabhudas Lilladhe said “over the next three years, Samhi’s net debt to core profit would still be higher than other hoteliers with debt,” and that “[Samhi], whose debt as of 2024-end stood at INR20.64 billion , expects the deal to trim it by INR5.8 billion.”
By press time, GIC has not returned a request for comment.