India’s largest hospitality company and budget hotel major Oyo Rooms is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire student accommodation assets of Lovely Professional University (LPU). The student accommodation assets is said to be located in one of LPU’s largest campuses and this tentative deal is touted to be around $200 Mn.
According to sources, cited by Economic Times (ET), the deal may be structured as a multi-decade, long term lease. Sources further add that LPU may continue to hold the right to determine the rental prices. If this is indeed true then this will certainly affect Oyo’s ability to control the pricing model.
In case, if this high-profile deal does fructify then it will give huge push to Oyo Life, one of the many verticals operated by the Gurgaon based company. With Oyo life, the budget hotel major is trying to break into the lucrative market of co-living space that are highly in demand among students and working professionals.
Like all lucrative markets, this space is also witnessing intense competition with well-funded startups like Nestaway and Grexter vying for the market share.
Meanwhile, it clearly seems that India’s largest hospitality company is currently on an acquisition spree to marks its aggressive expansion plans. It recently acquired Les Vegas Hooters Hotel for undisclosed amount, marking the SoftBank backed company’s first major acquisition in the U.S. market. This was immediately followed with the acquisition of Danish data science firm for nearly $ 10 Mn.
Since mid-last year, Oyo has been going full throttle to expand its business not only in domestic but also on the international shores. The company is especially not leaving any stone unturned to get its feet entrenched in the highly competitive Chinese market while it is also planning to cash on the hospitality boom in Japan ahead of the Olympic games next year.