The Oberoi Group

The Oberoi Group is a luxury hotel group with its head office in Delhi. Founded in 1934, the company owns and operates 31 luxury hotels and two river cruise ships in 5 countries, primarily under its Oberoi Hotels & Resorts and Trident brands.

History
The foundations of the Oberoi Group date back to 1934 when The Rai Bahadur Mohan Singh Oberoi, the founder of the group, bought two properties: the Maidens in Delhi and the Clarke's in Shimla. In the following years Oberoi, assisted by his two sons, Tilak Raj Singh Oberoi and Prithvi Raj Singh Oberoi (P.R.S. Oberoi), continued the expansion of their group with properties both in India and abroad.

November 2008 terrorist attack
On 26 November 2008 Hotel Trident-Oberoi was attacked by 2 terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba organization as a part of the 2008 Mumbai attacks. 32 staff and guests were killed during the three-day siege.

Ownership
The two major holding companies of The Oberoi Group are EIH Ltd and EIH Associated Hotels (formerly East India Hotels). P.R.S. Oberoi is the current chairman of The Oberoi Group. His son, Vikramjit Singh Oberoi, and his nephew, Arjun Singh Oberoi serve in the capacities of the Joint Managing Directors at the holding companies.

The Oberoi family is the majority shareholder in EIH Ltd with a 32.11% stake. Cigarettes to Hotels conglomerate, ITC Limited owns approximately a 14.98% stake in EIH Ltd. To ward off pressures from ITC Ltd. whose ownership stands precariously close to the automatic open offer trigger at 15%, the Oberoi family divested a 14.12% stake in EIH Ltd. to Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Investment and Holding Pvt Ltd. The stake sale happened on 30 August 2010 for Rs. 1,021 crores valuing EIH Ltd. at an enterprise value of Rs. 7,200 crores. Recently the stake of Reliance further raised from ITC and it stood at 20% overall for Reliance industries.

Hotels
The company currently manages 33 hotels under the luxury brand Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, with a further 10 five-star properties under the Trident Hotels brand. The group also operates the Clarkes Hotel in Shimla and the Maidens Hotel, Delhi. However, these two properties are not held under the Trident or under the Oberoi brand. The Clarkes Hotel, after remaining temporarily shut following its lawns caving in because of construction in the eco-sensitive vicinity, reopened on 16 September 2012.