Eros takes on more

With global hotel companies like Hyatt and Holiday Inn already in India and others waiting to enter, tycoon Jagdish Rai Sood faced no shortage when it came to proposals for his newly-acquired Kanishka hotel. But the tycoon first conducted a performance analysis on various hotels, and found the Shangri-La to be the best and most profitable among them all in terms of performance, achieving room rates and its expert personalised services. The fact that the Sood family and the Kuok family, which own Shangri-La Hotels have similar backgrounds as both started in the sugar industry. This was a great deciding factor.

Sood is confident Shangri-La will help raise the standard for hotels in the city and lift average room rates throughout the sector. It will also introduce its loyal clientele and network of worldwide offices to Sood’s hotel group. The tycoon couldn’t have timed his move better. At present only 3,000 luxury rooms exist in Delhi, so there is tremendous scope for luxury brands. Also, occupancy is on the rebound and rates are rising, which put together a forecast of substantial growth in this sector. Therefore, the Kanishka hotel originally acquired by Sood for Rs 96.5 crore will now open in December 2004, after a $22 million redecoration by Hong Kong-based Chhada, Siembieda and Associates. Its central location and high-speed Internet access and wireless LAN will add to its distinguishing features. Some believe the tycoon is getting himself into too many different kinds of high risk businesses together. For along with his hotel, he has also put in an investment of Rs 250 crore into his residential township Lakewood City, Rs 40 crore into his theatre Eros Cinema, which he is converting into a futuristic multiplex, and another Rs 125 crore into his business centre Corporate Tower, which will include India’s largest car park. With so much in the making, the next year is going to be extremely important for the tycoon whose efforts will begin to bear fruit by then. Let’s hope it’s worth all the trouble the man is taking now.

More acquisitions

Sun Pharma’s tycoon Dilip Shanghvi must regret the controversy he got himself into recently, when doctors in Nagpur and Kolkata used his drug Letroz, as a female infertility removal drug without permission from the Drugs Controller General of India. But he now seems to have come over it. The takeover trail, which he began with MJ Pharmaceuticals, has been continued by his recent efforts to acquire a $100 million generic company in the US. The deal that should come through by the end of next year will provide the tycoon a bigger and more advanced facility to manufacture his new chemical drugs. This will be his second acquisition in the US, as Caraco Pharmaceuticals Labs was his first in 1996. Caraco is expected to touch $45 million in revenues this year, and Shanghvi hopes his second acquisition will increase the total revenues to $100 million. Meanwhile the tycoon’s two new R&D facilities are being set up with internal accruals in Mumbai and Baroda. So the tycoon may soon have his wish of making Sun Pharma a well -run research-driven pharmaceutical company by the next millennium, if he keeps an alert eye on his drugs and their usage.

Dilip Cherian runs public relations firm Perfect Relations. Mail to dilipcherian@now-india.net.in