Mumbai, India: Singaporean luxury resorts chain Banyan Tree is in talks on buying a majority stake in fellow high-end hotel group Amanresorts, India’s Financial Express newspaper reported Monday.
   
The daily quoted a person familiar with the matter as saying that DLF, the Indian real estate firm that owns Aman, was in advanced talks to sell most of the business for about US$350 million ($483 million).  
   
Banyan Tree has a range of interests, from hotels and resorts to spas, shopping centres and golf courses around the world.
   
The newspaper said DLF, India’s largest real estate group, was seeking to sell a “controlling stake” in the group as part of a plan to cut its debt in the wake of the global downturn in the real estate market.
   
It bought Aman for US$400 million in 2007.
   
Amanresorts owns and manages 24 small luxury resorts in countries including Thailand, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, France, Morocco, and the United States, according to its website.