British American Tobacco plans to offload stake in ITC Hotels

British American Tobacco is looking to offload its stake in India's ITC Hotels, it said on Thursday, through an accelerated bookbuild process.

The tobacco group plans to sell between 7% and its entire 15.3% stake in ITC Hotels, with proceeds from the block trade earmarked for deleveraging its balance sheet.

In May, BAT sold a $1.5 billion stake in ITC Ltd, the parent company from which ITC Hotels was spun off as a separate listed entity in January.

"As previously stated, a direct stake in ITC Hotels is not a strategic holding for BAT," CEO Tadeu Marroco said, adding that its direct shareholding in ITC Hotels was a result of the demerger process earlier this year.