Sahara India makes international hospitality foray with the acquisition of Grosvenor House in London

Indian diverse-business group, Sahara India Pariwar has acquired the iconic Grosvenor House hotel from The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc. Sahara paid 470 million pounds for the luxury hotel. The hotel will now be owned by M/s Aamby Valley Ltd. The acquisition was brokered by Richard Lewczynski of Blandford Goldsmith.

According to Subrata Roy, managing worker and chairman, Sahara Group, the hotel's valuation three years ago was more than 1 billion pounds. "Its current valuation is still quite high though. The deal was sealed after long and strict negotiations and, highly satisfactory due diligence by its erstwhile owners - the Royal Bank of Scotland," said Roy.

With the acquisition of Grosvenor House, Sahara has now forayed into the international hospitality market. The group's current hotel business portfolio in India includes, Hotel Sahara Star near the domestic airport in Mumbai and the luxurious Aamby Valley City spread across 10,600 acres.

He added, "This acquisition is part of the group's ambitious expansion plans going forward. Acquisition of Grosvenor House, will be the gateway for Sahara to introduce some of its new business ventures, internationally."

Royal Bank of Scotland has refurbished the hotel in the past two years and global hospitality major Marriott International has been managing it. However, according to Sahara India management the Group will run the hotel jointly and is confident that Sahara’s Grosvenor House Hotel will take the iconic hotel to new heights.

Located in the prestigious locality of Park Lane in Mayfair, London, Grosvenor House features 420 rooms, 74 suites, 27 meeting rooms providing an incredible 4,000 square meters of high quality space. The hotel also houses Europe's largest and most famous hotel banqueting space, the Great Room. Now that the hotel has been acquired by Sahara, the new owners intend to make Grosvenor House the most sought after destination of London. New additions to the hotel will be in the form of number of restaurants including an Indian restaurant christened 'Namak', a grand bar, good spacious night club, a large business centre, swimming pool, a grand spa with parlors and other facilities.

Founded in 1978 Sahara India has presence in multiple sectors including hospitality, tourism, city development, real estate activities, financial services, housing finance, mutual funds, life insurance, print and television media, film production, sports, information technology, healthcare, commodity sales and services and consumer products.