INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The money from Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Mittal would fund acquisitions by Sharan Pasricha's Ennismore
The family of billionaire Sunil Mittal, who controls India's biggest mobile-phone operator, is looking to pump more than $1 billion into a
hotel chain founded by his son-in-law in London, people with knowledge of the matter said.The money, which would come from a unit of
Mittal's Bharti Group that handles the founding family's wealth, would fund acquisitions by Sharan Pasricha's Ennismore, a developer
that owns the Gleneagles resort and Hoxton hotel chain, which is expanding in the United States and Europe, said the people, who asked not
to be identified as the matter is private.The injection would help Pasricha acquire and convert properties in trendy urban areas in United
States and European cities into hotels aimed at appealing to younger travelers
Hoxton, known for its casual atmosphere and affordable rates, operates two hotels in the London neighborhoods of Shoreditch and Holborn and
one each in Amsterdam and Paris
The brand has 667 rooms across these three cities.Ennismore said in an email it's partners with Bharti Global, which makes investments for
the Mittal family, and declined to comment further
A Bharti Global representative declined to comment.Street ArtPasricha, who's married to Mittal's daughter Eiesha, ran a media startup,
then a leather-goods factory and private equity before getting into the hotel business
Pasricha acquired the first Hoxton in Shoreditch, an east London neighborhood known for street art
The second in Holborn in 2014 was followed by Amsterdam in 2015 and Paris in 2017.Hoxton is developing hotels in New York City's hip
neighborhood of Williamsburg, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, with plans to start opening some of them this year, according to its website
By 2020, the firm expects to add locations in Chicago, San Francisco and in London's Southwark and Shepherd's Bush.Ennismore also
acquired the 232-room Gleneagles resort in Scotland in 2015 and is planning a new chain called NoCo -- a budget hotel format it is
positioning as "less boring" -- to open its first location in 2019.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
