Ambani’s Reliance will raise $ 98m at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries is donating $ 98m to secure a direct investment in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York from the Dubai treasury.

The hotel, which opened in 2003 and is located near Central Park, caters for high-profile travelers – with more suites than ever. $ 14,000 night – and it has been many owners and Investment Corporation of Dubai since 2015.

This was not the first time that India’s telecoms conglomerate had set up a hospitality fund. Last year, Reliance bought a British 300-acre club at a cost of £ 57m, which owns a hotel, and has donated money to Oberoi Hotels.

The agreement emphasizes how the hospitality industry has suffered and how to deal with the business travel epidemic. The 244-room hotel, located near Columbus Circle, was priced at $ 340m in 2006.

But experts say the price tag is a slight change for the group run by Ambani, the richest man in Asia.

“When [RIL’s] paper money is something close to $ 170-180bn, [hotel investments are] not an essential part of [its] all the money. There is nothing here or there, “says Harshavardhan Dole, an investigator at IIFL, whose publication includes Reliance Industries.

“It seems that, given the amount of money, one has to see this as more money than the process,” added Dole.

For Dubai’s autonomous fund fund, the sale, which was announced late on Saturday, closes the headline for most hospitality businesses.

Istithmar Hotels, owned by Dubai-based Dubai World, acquired 73 percent in Mandarin Oriental New York in 2006, when the Hong Kong capital of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group decided to sell half of its revenue.

It was one of the largest New York-based hotels for freewheeling. This included W Hotel Union Square, which Istithmar bought for $ 285m and was forced to sell for $ 2m three years later, in 2009, when the Dubai debt crisis began.

Dubai Investment Corporation bought a share of Mandarin Oriental New York in 2015 following a major overhaul of Dubai World.

To buy Mandarin Oriental New York, a subsidiary of Reliance will purchase the Cayman Islands-affiliated with Columbus Center Corporation, which Reliance claimed to own 73.37 percent ownership of the hotel. The deal is expected to end in March.

Reliance, India’s largest wholesale company, has also offered to buy the rest of the owners at the same price. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group retained 25 percent and continues to monitor the hotel. The group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The epidemic cost Mandarin Oriental funds – down from $ 15m in 2020 compared to $ 113m last year, according to Reliance shares.

Additional reports of Primrose Riordan in Hong Kong and Simeon Kerr in Dubai