KBJ Hotels plans Rs1,000 crore IPO in 2012

Jeweller turned hotelier, KBJ Hotels is planning a Rs1,000 crore public listing by 2012. With a 1:1.5 equity to debt ratio, KBJ intends to use the Rs2,500 crore for another 25 hotels, some of which will be in countries such as Sri Lanka.

The IPO however is subject to how much of its ambition plan KBJ Hotels can realise in the ensuing two years. It has 10 hotels in development, five in Phase 1, the other five in Phase 2, to bring its room count by the IPO to 1,111.
Its outlay for these 10 hotels is Rs1,000 crore, 20% of which KBJ Hotels says its expects to raise from an international PE in the very near future.

“We have traditionally been a jewellery manufacturing and trading group. This is a strategic step keeping in mind our ambitious goals for the future,” said Mohit Khamboj, managing director, KBJ Group.

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Apart from the IPO, KBJ Hotels also has two other hospitality ventures; the management JV with Bangkok’s Absolute Hotel Services, and the ‘V Restaurant & Bar’ its own F&B concept.

The JV, Absolute KBJ Hotel Services India, has just signed a 114-room hotel in Pune and expects to finalise a similar contract for a 104-Mumbai hotel. These signings are for the mid-market Eastin Hotels brand. This is AHSI’s first management contracts outside of KBJ Hotels’ properties, all of which will be managed by it.

KBJ Hotels’ F&B venture is in the final concept stage. The first location is expected in November this year in Mumbai’s Nariman Point. The second V is expected in Mumbai’s Navi Mumbai.