One of India's biggest carpet exporters, Satish Gupta has bought Tristar Hotels' Svelte Hotel & Personal Suites in Delhi's Saket business district for Rs 110 crore from a consortium that includes Ranjan Bhattacharya, the foster son-in-law of former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and CPH, a fund run by media moghul Kerry Packer, according to a report by Ravi Teja Sharma in The Times of India. The new owner of the property is now looking at signing a management contract with an international hotel brand, but until then, Bhattacharya's Troilus Hotels will continue to manage the hotel.
The hotel, which sits atop the up-market Select City Walk mall, is the first such property to be sold in the vicinity and will become the benchmark for future hotel deals.
Gupta, whose Maharaja Exporters was one of India's largest exporters of carpets to Europe and the US, has seen the carpets business decline 90 per cent over the past five to six years because of the housing bust in the West. "Exports of hand-knotted carpets have gone down dramatically, so we are now looking at the hospitality business," Gupta said. The exporter is hoping to turn around the hotel property and said that if it becomes profitable in the next two years, he would look at more acquisitions to grow this business. The plan now is to pump in Rs 12-15 crore to refurbish the hotel and bring in an international operator to run it.