Indian Hotels buys Mumbai property for $143 mln

MUMBAI, June 12 (Reuters) - Indian Hotels Ltd (IHTL.BO) said on Friday it plans to buy a controlling stake in Elel Hotels and Investments for 6.8 billion rupees ($143 million) to expand in the financial capital of Mumbai.

Elel Hotels holds the sublease for the land on which a hotel is located in north Mumbai. Indian Hotels plans to demolish the structure and build a luxury hotel, it said in a statement.

Separately Indian Hotels, part of the Tata conglomerate, reported a consolidated net profit in the year ended March 2009 tumbled 96.5 percent to 124.6 million rupees from 3,549.8 million a year earlier.

Total income fell to 27.8 billion rupees from 30.6 billion rupees a year ago.

Ahead of the announcement, shares in the firm fell 3.5 percent to 75.40 rupees in a Mumbai market .BSESN that slid 1.1 percent. ($1=47.6 rupees) (Reporting by Narayanan Somasundaram; Editing by John Mair)