London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, the iconic Park Lane hotel, is being sold to Indian business group Sahara India Pariwar, according to a newspaper report on Sunday.
The Sahara Group, which is led by billionaire Subroto Roy Sahara, will buy the Grosvenor House Hotel for about £470 million, according to the Sunday Times, which did not reveal the source of its information.
Indians are being named in acquisition news on Sunday as Indian entrepreneur Bhanu Choudhrie has also been named as potential buyer of Pontin’s, a chain of holiday camps that collapsed into administration. Mr Choudhrie and his family’s investment vehicle C&C Alpha Group could team up with the Dubai royal family to buy the business for up to £15 million, according to the Mail on Sunday.
The 494-room Grosvenor House hotel, which opened in 1929, is a JW Marriott Hotel since September 2008. Grosvenor House was built in the 18th century and became the Duke of Westminster’s London home in 1806. The hotel is owned by Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, which bought it in 2001. RBS is majority owned by the UK government after financial bailouts last year and at present the UK government has 84 per cent stake in the bank.
The bank had previously sought £700 million for the landmark hotel, but had decided to sell it at a cheaper price after two previous auctions failed, the report added. The hotel has been on market for over three years.
Last week, a global trends report released at World Travel Market in London revealed that British luxury hotels were being targeted for acquisition by West Asian and Gulf businessmen.