Inspiration Hlt Regulatory News (IHC)

18 Jul 2007 07:01

India Hospitality Corp.18 July 2007 For immediate release 18 July 2007 India Hospitality Announces Approval of the Acquisitions of Mars Restaurants and SkyGourmet Catering New York, NY. - July 18, 2007 - India Hospitality Corp. (LSE: IHC, IHC or IndiaHospitality), today announced that with regard to the acquisition from NavisCapital Partners and its Affiliates of India-based Mars Restaurants PrivateLimited (MRPL or Mars), an emerging hotel and restaurant company, and SkyGourmetCatering Private Limited (SCPL or SkyGourmet), an airline catering companyoperating out of four locations in India, in a transaction involving cash andshares and valued at approximately US $110 million, at an extraordinary generalmeeting of IHC shareholders held on July 17, 2007 IHC shareholders approved theacquisition and: • all other transactions contemplated by the share purchase agreement which includes possible future acquisitions by IHC's subsidiary, IHC Mauritius Corp., of Noida Opco, which owns a further hotel, and/or the Nirula's Group's quick service restaurant chain; • certain advisory services related to the transaction; and • the extension to August 31, 2007 of the date by which a Qualified Business Combination must be consummated from August 1, 2007. At the extraordinary general meeting, proxies were received as follows: infavour of the resolutions, 17,435,723; against the resolutions, 1,520,000; andabstaining 290,000. IHC shareholders voting against the resolutions haveexercised their repurchase rights in respect of in aggregate 1,520,000 ordinaryshares of IHC. IHC will fund the consideration for these repurchase rights outof its available cash resources and/or through requiring Hayground Cove AssetManagement (through the funds and accounts it manages) to subscribe for up to1,520,000 new ordinary shares in IHC at the same price per share as therepurchased ordinary shares are required to be repurchased by IHC. Allshareholders exercising their repurchase rights are required to tender theirshare certificates to the Company and provide the usual representations andwarranties as to continuing ownership of their ordinary shares in order to beentitled to exercise their repurchase rights. The acquisition is expected to close shortly at which point IHC's ordinaryshares and warrants are expected to be re-admitted to trading on AIM. A furtherannouncement will be made in due course. About Mars Mars was incorporated in 2000 by Mr. Sanjay Narang and his management team withthe objective of operating and managing restaurants. Since its incorporation,Mars has diversified into bakery outlets and operating and managing food courtsand hotels. For the nine months ended December 31, 2006, MRPL had auditedrevenues of approximately US $7.2 million. MRPL currently employs over 550people. About SkyGourmet SkyGourmet was incorporated in 2002 and is headquartered in Mumbai. SkyGourmetcurrently provides inflight catering services to a number of domestic andinternational airlines, including Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, Air IndiaExpress, Indian Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and Air France. It has operationsin Mumbai, Bangalore, New Delhi and Pune. For the nine months ended December 31,2006, SCPL had audited revenues of approximately US $11.7 million. SkyGourmetcurrently has over 1,150 employees. About India Hospitality Corp. IHC is a blank-check company created to acquire Indian businesses or assets inthe hospitality, leisure, tourism, travel and related industries, including butnot limited to hotels, resorts, timeshares, serviced apartments and restaurants. In August 2006, IHC raised US $103 million in an IPO and private placement andis listed on AIM, a market operated by London Stock Exchange plc, under theticker IHC. The Company was sponsored and advised by Hayground Cove AssetManagement LLC, a New York-based investment management firm with approximatelyUS $2.8 billion in gross assets under management. For Further Information Contact: Investor Relations Contact: ICR Inc.William Schmitt203-682-8200 Media Contact: Buchanan CommunicationsRichard Darby, Isabel Podda+44 207 466 5000 Media Contact - India: Fleishman-Hillard, Inc.Yusuf HatiaOffice: +91 22 4030 9368Mobile: +91 98 2059 6908 Nominated Adviser and Broker: Deutsche BankMumtaz Naseem+44 20 7545 8000 Deutsche Bank AG is authorised under German Banking Law (competent authority:BaFin - Federal Financial Supervising Authority) and with respect to UKcommodity derivatives business by the Financial Services Authority; regulated bythe Financial Services Authority for the conduct of UK business. Deutsche Bankis acting exclusively for IHC. and no-one else in connection with theacquisition and related transactions and other matters referred to in thisannouncement and will not be responsible to anyone other than IHC. for providingthe protections afforded to clients of Deutsche Bank AG nor for providing advicein relation to the acquisitions and related transactions or any matter referredto in this announcement. Deutsche Bank is IHC's nominated adviser and broker for the purposes of the AIMRules for Companies. Its responsibilities as IHC's nominated adviser and brokerunder the AIM Rules for Nominated Advisers are owed solely to London StockExchange plc and not to IHC, any director of IHC or any other person. No offer or invitation to purchase or subscribe for ordinary shares in orwarrants to purchase or subscribe for ordinary shares or warrants of IHC isbeing made by this announcement. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange