Leela Hotel at Udaipur is among the 4 properties of the troubled Hotel Leela Venture Limited group that has been sold off to Canadian Asset Management firm Brookefield. After a year of negotiations, the deal finally materialized for a sum of Rs 3,950 Crore. 

As per reports, the Mumbai Leela property will continue to be managed by the erstwhile owners, under license from Brookefield. 

The Canadian firm has paid a sum of Rs 150 Crore for the Leela brand. As per estimates, the Leela group, which was in a financial mess, had an outstanding debt due to Banks and financial institutions to the tune of Rs 3,000 Crore.  Hence the entire proceeds has been used to settle creditors.

A statement from HLVL says that the lenders have issued release letters to the company wherein they have confirmed that there are no further dues payable and have further released all security interest created including security on assets that are not part of the sale to Brookefield.

Yesterday on 23 October, the employees of the four properties included in the deal, were transferred to Brookefield – Udaipur, Delhi, Bengalurui and Chennai. Two senior officials – President Rajiv Kaul and CFO Rajan have resigned.

The deal, however intriguing it might be for HLVL, certainly highlights the optimism of the investment firm on the Indian market. After having already agreed to buy Reliance Jio Infratel with an investment of Rs 25,215 Crore.