Panoramic Universal to foray into Reality

New Delhi, Dec 26 (UNI) Panoramic Universal Ltd, with interests in hotels and Information Technology, today said it has decided to foray into realty apart from its massive expansion plans in the hospitality sector.

In the next three years, the company will be looking at projects in the range of Rs 1,000 crore, which will be funded through various routes like Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP), Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs), Private Equity, strategic partnership and debt funding.

''There is a huge synergy between real estate and hospitality. We are in the process of executing a lot of greenfield hotel projects in India. This has given us the necessary expertise to venture into realty,'' said Panoramic Group Chairman Sudhir Moravekar.

He said in the current financial year, the company is looking at hospitality projects of Rs 50 to 60 crore in India which will be funded by a 12 million dollars global depository receipts (GDRs) issue with a greenshoe option of three million dollars, expected to complete by the end of January 2007.

For the big-ticket projects, SPVs/joint ventures with reputed players may also be entered into.

Panoramic Universal, the flagship company of the Panoramic Group, owns and operates five hotels in the US, one in New Zealand and three hotels in India at Goa, Shirdi and Malvan.

In India, it has plans to build two five star hotels in Pune and Goa. The company has acquired land in Pune and are in advanced negotiations for land in Goa.

Its India plans also include a hotel each in Kerala, Rajasthan and Shimla. It has lined up two projects in Thane and Durgapur.

These projects shall be three star hotels with a recreation club.

The Thane project is underway and is expected to be operational in 16 months.

Durgapur project is expected to be operational in another 24 months. A budget hotel of 150 rooms is planned in Pune and is expected to be operational by 2008-09.

Besides real estate and hospitality, Panoramic Universal, is looking at acquisition of a travel agency to become an end-to-end player in the travel and tourism industry. The company will be looking at the travel division as a profit center whereby besides their own hotels, the division will also market other hotel properties.

The travel agency will focus on holiday packages and MICE segment for long-term business and healthy margins.

The US-based wholly-owned subsidiary of Panoramic Universal is planning to acquire a travel agency in the US also. The Indian and the US travel agencies will cater to both inbound and outbound tourism from their respective countries.

The expected turnover from these two acquisitions should increase by 50 per cent by FY08 with net margins of eight to 10 per cent.

The travel division will also acquire/set up an e-travel portal to increase the company's reach to its customers. The portal shall also cater to online room bookings of holiday packages besides e-ticketing.

The company expects FY07 to end with a 50 per cent growth in the revenues and 100 per cent growth in net profits.

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