The US-based Orient Express Hotels has termed the all cash $1.86 billion acquisition offer by Tata Group’s arm, Indian Hotels as ‘unsolicited’.
Reacting to the development, Orient Express Hotels said they would evaluate the proposal and respond accordingly.
Indian Hotels has held about seven per cent shares of Orient-Express hotels for past years and had offered to buy all its outstanding shares at $12.63 a piece.
In its statement on the website Orient Express Hotels said it has received an unsolicited letter from the Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) and certain other members of the Tata Group of companies dated October 18, 2012...
The offer also included an unsolicited proposal by those parties and a fund controlled by Montezemolo Partners to acquire all outstanding shares of Orient-Express Hotels Ltd.
While it did not spell out its immediate course of action, the firm said: The board of directors of Orient Express Hotels expects to evaluate the proposal carefully and respond in due course in accordance with the best interests of the Orient-Express Hotels and its shareholders.
A day after making an “unsolicited” offer to take over Orient-Express, Indian Hotels said their offer is not a hostile bid. “This is an offer to the company. If they feel it is good for the board, the shareholders and ultimately the board will have to reply,” IHCL Vice-Chairman R K Krishna Kumar said.
In a letter to Orient Express Hotels interim chief executive officer Philip R Mengel on Thursday, Krishna Kumar said: “While we are disappointed that your board of directors has indicated they would not be interested in exploring a transaction involving a significant equity investment by IHCL we continue to believe that a transaction between the two organisations is both financially and strategically compelling to our respective shareholders”.