Indian owner of Marriott-operated hotels files for IPO

BENGALURU, Sept 25 (Reuters) - SAMHI Hotels Ltd, the owner of the largest number of Marriott and IHG -operated hotels in India, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) to raise up to 11 billion rupees ($154.82 million) by issuing new shares.

Existing shareholders are also seeking to sell up to 19.1 million shares in the offering, with Blue Chandra Pte Ltd and Goldman Sachs Investments Holdings (Asia) Ltd looking to offload about 15 million shares in total, according to its prospectus http://www.investmentbank.kotak.com/downloads/samhi-hotels-limited-DRHP.pdf.

The company said it would use part of the proceeds from the fresh issue of shares to cut its debt.

Moneycontrol reported in May that SAMHI Hotels was considering raising up to 20 billion rupees in an IPO in the second half of 2019.

SAMHI Hotels' filing comes days after the government slashed corporate taxes and the goods and services tax on hotel rates in an effort to boost private investment and revive a sagging economy.

This also follows Chalet Hotels Ltd's $230 million share sale in January that received solid investor response. The stock has risen about 10% since its listing.

SAMHI Hotels may also consider raising up to 4 billion rupees in a rights issue to existing shareholders or via a private placement, it said in the filing.

Kotak Mahindra Capital, CLSA India, DSP Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs (India) Securities are book running lead managers to the IPO. ($1 = 71.0500 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

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