Panoramic Universal to foray into Real Estate

Panoramic Universal Ltd has announced that the Company has decided to foray into realty, apart from its massive expansion plans in the hospitality sector. This decision was taken by the Board of Directors at its meeting held on December 22nd. Speaking on the same, Mr. Sudhir Moravekar Chairman, Panoramic Group said, "Our forte has always been real estate and hospitality. The foundation of the group is based on the success that we had in the real estate space in the early 90’s. We eventually ventured into hospitality in which we have been very successful".

"There is a huge synergy between Real Estate and Hospitality. We are in the process of executing a lot of Greenfield hotel projects in India. This has given us the necessary expertise to venture into realty" he added.

In the current financial year, the Company is looking at hospitality projects of Rs 50 to 60 crores in India. This will be funded by a USD 12 million GDR issue with a greenshoe option of USD 3 Million which is expected to complete by the end of January 2007.

In the next three years, the Company shall be looking at projects in the range of Rs 1000 crores which shall be funded through various routes like QIP, FCCBs, Private Equity, strategic partnership and debt finding. For the big ticket projects, SPV’s / joint ventures with reputed players may be entered into.

Besides real estate and hospitality, the Company is looking at acquisition of a travel agency to become an end to end player in the travel & tourism industry. "We shall be looking at Travel division as a profit centre whereby besides our own hotels, the division will also market other hotel properties. The travel agency will focus on Holiday Packages and MICE segment where we have a long-term business and good margins" said Mr. Moravekar.

USA based wholly owned subsidiaries of the Company are planning an acquisition of a travel agency in the US also. This way the Indian and the US travel agencies will cater to both inbound and outbound tourism of the respective countries.

The Company expects that the turnover from these two acquisitions will lead to a 50% rise in the revenues of the Company in FY08 with net margins of 8 to 10%.

The travel division will also acquire / set up an e-travel portal to increase Company's reach to its customers and give them needful information at the click of a button. The portal shall also cater to online room bookings of holiday packages etc. besides e-ticketing too.

Source : Equity Bulls

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