Indian Hotels surges 5% over Tata-Orient row

Indian Hotels' shares surged 5.22 per cent on Thursday in early morning trade following an apology sought by Tatas from the US luxury hotel chain Orient Express, which spurned a partnership offer by the Indian corporate.

Shares of the company opened firm on Thursday at Rs 147.70, up 1.58 per cent from Wednesday's close, then rallied ahead to witness an intra-day high of Rs 153 and as much as 1.05 lakh shares changed hands on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

On the National Stock Exchange, the company opened at Rs 145.10, touched a high of Rs 148.50, up 2.10 per cent over its previous close and over 3.02 lakh shares got traded.

The tiff between the two hospitality majors started after Orient Express Hotels CEO Paul M White wrote to the Indian Hotel chain that it would not like to associate with any Indian brand.

Indian Hotels, which owns 11.5 per cent in Orient-Express, is a part of the Tata Group.

Demanding an apology by the American hotel chain to the Taj Hotels, the Tatas said it was a proud Indian company and would persevere with its global expansion strategy.

In the strongly-worded communication to the Orient Express Hotel's CEO, the chief of the Indian Hotel R K Krishna Kumar said, "the purpose of this letter is not to pursue a dialogue directly with you but instead to set the record straight on our intention in approaching your company."

He said: "We ask the Orient Express Hotels to publish a formal apology to the Taj Hotels using the same channel that it had used to publish its letter to the Taj Hotels and said the Taj Hotels was a proud Indian company and would persist with global expansion strategy."