BAT unlikely to bat on the board of ITC's hotels biz

BAT chief executive said last December that ITC's hotel business is not an area of interest for the British tobacco maker. The document showed BAT had voted in favour of the demerger. Aven after selling its entire stake, BAT will continue to have some indirect interest in the company via ITC's holding in hotel company.

ET Bureau

The board of ITC has two representatives of BAT - Sunil Panray and Atul Singh. This March, BAT sold a 3.5% stake in ITC for ₹16,690 crore in a block deal to institutional investors, paring its holding to 25.51%.

As per the document, the proposed board of ITC Hotels will include ITC chairman Sanjiv Puri who will become chairman and non-executive director of the new entity. Three more senior executives of ITC will also join board as non-executive directors - Anil Chadha, chief executive of hospitality business; , executive director and chief financial officer; and company secretary RK Singhi. PR Ramesh, who served as a partner at Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, will also join as non-executive director. The executive cited above said the board of ITC Hotels might be expanded after its listing. He said Puri will continue as chairman and Chadha might be appointed as MD of new company. "This will be decided by the board of ITC Hotels after the listing. However, BAT is unlikely to take a then too," he said. Post , BAT is likely to appoint a to sell its stake in ITC Hotels.

An analyst said BAT's exit from ITC Hotels is imminent. "There are no issues for BAT to sell stake in ITC Hotels as regulations in the hotel sector are not as stringent as tobacco," he said. In response to ET's queries, a spokesman for ITC said a meeting of the company's ordinary shareholders has been convened on June 6 for approving the scheme of arrangements relating to demerger of the hotel business.