Hyderabad, April 30 : TAJGVK Hotels & Resorts Limited's profit declined 68 percent during fiscal 2012-13 and the same came down 88 percent during the fourth quarter ended March 31.

The company, which Tuesday announced its results for Q4 and the year, attributed the decline to slowdown in the economy, increased competition in all geographies and the higher interest and depreciation for its new property.

TAJGVK, a strategic alliance between the Hyderabad-based GVK Group and Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL), said its profit before tax was at Rs. 13.60 crore for year ended Mar 2013, compared to Rs. 42.78 crore in the previous year.

New Delhi, April 9 : The Delhi High Court Tuesday issued notice to the NDMC on a plea of Tata Group's Indian Hotels Company (IHC) against the civic agency's proposal to auction the lease of a plot on which Taj Mahal Hotel is built in the heart of the city.

Justice M. L. Mehta sought a response from the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) which owns the plot on Mansingh Road in central Delhi and said he would consider the company's plea seeking an interim stay on the auction on the next date of hearing.

Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL), the Tata Group's firm that operates the Taj Mahal hotel in New Delhi, has dragged the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to court to protect its position in the matter pertaining to the renewal of license of the hotel.

IHCL has reportedly filed an injunction suit against NDMC in the High Court of Delhi, seeking an order to stop NDMC from auctioning the rights of managing the hotel following the expiry of its extended lease in October.

Mumbai, April 1 : Sarovar Hotels, one of India's fastest growing hotel management companies, has announced the signing of two more hotels in Gujarat - at Gandhidham and Bhavnagar.

The hotels will be developed under Sarovar Portico brand and will be operational over the next three years.

Sarovar Portico, Gandhidham, will offer 58 rooms and is expected to be operational by 2014, while Sarovar Portico, Bhavnagar, will be a 80 room hotel, slated to open in 2016.

Tata group's hospitality arm Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL) will continue to run the Taj Palace Hotel for another 25 years as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has renewed the lease.

IHCL and the DDA had originally signed a contract for the construction and licence of the hotel for thirty years effective from 1st of April 1983. Thus, the contract was to expire on March 31 this year.

Following the renewal of the lease contract, IHCL will continue to operate the hotel till 31st of March 2038.

Speciality Restaurants Ltd (SRL), the only listed fine dining restraint in India, has announced its plans to go international in the next six months.

SRL has confirmed that it is making a serious attempt to become a licensed partner of an international quick service restaurant (QSR) chain, and that talks are going on with an American regional brand.

Hamburg, Mar 6 : The JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, which opened this week, may hold the new record for the world''s tallest hotel building, but there are several other hotels that have breached the 400 metre mark.

All the rooms in the Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong are to be found on floors with three-digit numbers, and offer a magnificent view of Victoria Harbour and the city''s skyline from well over 400 meters up.

The very highest luxury, in a twofold sense, is enjoyed by guests staying in the 415 sq. m Ritz-Carlton Suite on the 117th floor.

The government in the Australian state of Queensland has given its approval to plans to build a huge Great Barrier Reef resort in the area.

If the promoters are able to get an approval from the federal government, it would become one of the largest tourism developments in the country down under. Tower Holdings is planning to invest about

Hamburg, Mar 1 : The JW Marriott Marquis Dubai, which opened this week, may hold the new record for the world's tallest hotel building, but there are several other hotels that have breached the 400 metre mark.

All the rooms in the Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong are to be found on floors with three-digit numbers, and offer a magnificent view of Victoria Harbour and the city's skyline from well over 400 meters up.

The very highest luxury, in a twofold sense, is enjoyed by guests staying in the 415 sq. m Ritz-Carlton Suite on the 117th floor.

Hotel Leelaventure has said announced that it has sold its IT Park Building in Chennai to Reliance Industries under a deal valued at Rs. 170.17 crore.

The sale of the building is a part of the company's plans to reduce its debt, which touched Rs. 4,750 crore as on March 2012. The company is aiming to reduce its debt by Rs. 2,750 crore in the coming future with the help of measures like sale of non-core assets, partial stake sale in some hotel projects and new partnerships with developers.

Indian Hotels Company Ltd (IHCL), a subsidiary of Tata Group, announced on Monday that it might increase room tariffs in some segments.

Raymond Bickson, managing director of IHCL, said, "Due to seasonality, Q4 is looking strong. In Q3, we had increased room tariffs in some of our segments and we hope to improve on that during the next quarter."

Hotels and restaurants in Kerala have decided to stop selling chicken-based food items because of high-cost of raw chicken, Kerala Hotel & Restaurant Association confirmed.

Jose Mohan, general secretary of Kerala Hotel & Restaurant Association, said that that drastic increase in the prices of raw chicken left them with no other option than to boycott chicken-based food items.

Indian reality giant DLF has finally managed to sell its luxury hotel chain Aman Resorts back to its Indonesia-based founder Adrian Zecha for $300 million (around Rs 1,600 crore).

DLF, India's biggest realtor, will use proceeds from the sale to further slash its heavy debt pile. As on September 30, the realtor was burdened with a net debt of Rs 23,220 crore, which dropped to Rs 21,220 crore after realization of Rs 2,727 crore from the sale of NTC Mill land to the Lodha group.

India's biggest property developer, DLF has said that it has agreed to sell its premium hotel chain Amanresorts in a management buy-out deal valued at US$ 300 million or about Rs 1,600 crore.

DLF Global Hospitality Ltd, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of DLF, has entered into a definitive agreement under which Adrian Zecha, the founder and Chairman of the Amanresorts Group of luxury resorts will acquire DGHL's 100 per cent shareholding in Silverlink Resorts Ltd, the company that owns Amanresorts. The Management Buy-Out agreement is expected to be completed by February depending upon usual conditions.

Hotels and Resorts, a unit of Taj group of hotels, has opened a new hotel in Coorg in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

This is the 25th property with the Vivanta brand since it was launched in 2010. The new hotel will be situated at an altitude of 4,000 ft and will offer panoramic view of the Western Ghats and the mountains of Coorg. The new hotel will be built on 180 acres of subtropical rainforest and will have 63 rooms and villas and presidential Nirvana Suite

Indian Hotels, which is a unit of India's Tata group, is likely to sweeten its bid to acquire British hospitality group Orient Express by about 10 to 15 per cent in the coming days.

Orient Express had turned down the company's earlier offer that valued its shares at $12.63 a piece translating into the value of the entire company at $1.86 billion. The board of the Orient Express Hotels (OEH) had indicated that they might wait for a higher bid.

Holiday Inn Express announced the launch of its first property in India on Tuesday. The 173-room property in the central business district of Ahmedabad is the brand's only second in South East Asia.

It is a joint venture (JV) between Duet India Hotels (DIH) and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). DIH and IHG hold 76 per cent and 24 per cent equity stakes in the JV, respectively.

The JV said their first hotel in Ahmedabad had been developed to meet the soaring demand for mid-market hotel rooms by business travellers.

Reality giant DLF on Wednesday expects to finalize the sale of its luxury hotel chain Aman Resorts before the end of current quarter.

In an analyst call, DLF Chief Financial Officer Ashok Tyagi said that the company hoped to close the deal in the next few weeks. He added that India's leading real estate developer also expected to complete the sale of its wind energy business by January 2013.

Speaking on the topic, he said, "We have all regulatory approvals required to sell our wind assets. It should be carried out in two to three months."

Orient-Express Hotels Ltd, the hospitality company whose properties include the likes of the `21' Club in New York and the Hotel Cipriani in Venice, once again turned down the $1.8-billion takeover offer from Indian Hotels Company (IHCL).

Tata Group-owned IHCL had tabled an unsolicited $1.8-billion, or $12.63 a share, takeover offer.

Orient-Express rejected the takeover offer saying it significantly undervalued the company. Robert Lovejoy, chairman of Orient-Express, said the offer was deeply unattractive from a financial perspective.

While Tata group firm Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL) is reportedly preparing to sweeten its offer from $1.86 billion to acquire Orient Express Hotels, investors are betting that board of American hotels chain will turn down the offer.

Earlier this month, IHCL offered to take full control of Orient Express Hotels for $12.63 per share. The unsolicited bid represented a premium of 43 per cent on the American firm's 20-day average price.