ITC emerges top bidder for Goa hotel.

ITC Ltd. has emerged the top bidder for a beach front hotel in Goa, but it isn’t immediately clear whether it will actually manage to acquire the property in the end.

State-run lender IFCI Ltd. recently concluded the auction of Park Hyatt hotel in Goa.

The Kolkata-based cigarette maker, which also runs hotels, bid Rs.515 crore for the property, IFCI said in a regulatory filling. ITC said in its filing that the lender had declared it the highest bidder and asked it to make payment for the property.

The Business Standard newspaper reported on Tuesday that the proposed sale of the hotel has been legally challenged by its owners on several grounds, including that it was being sold cheap, far below its fair value. This could not be independently verified.

IFCI had put the property on the block after its owners were unable to repay loans.

If the deal materializes, this will be ITC’s first acquired property. It has though in the past tried to take control of rival EIH Ltd, which runs hotels under the Oberoi brand, by buying into the company, but ITC has never in the past bought stand-alone properties.

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