When contacted, Indian Hotels, in a faxed reply, said that Menezes, executive director in charge of the hotels associated with the group primarily in the US and the UK, ``decided to seek a career outside the group.'' Menezes -- who was often touted as Kerkar's successor -- is likely to join multinational hotel chain, Four Seasons. The board of directors has yet to a take a decision on Menezes' resignation.

Just before the acrimonous battle between Bombay House and Kerkar, the name of Menezes was put forward by Kerkar as the compromise successor to the post of MD. But chairman Ratan Tata decided to get his own man from outside to handle the coveted post.

Though Menezes was responsible for the three properties of Indian Hotels -- Lexington, ExecutivePlaza and St James Court -- he was not included in the core committee set up by Tata to restructure the group's foreign operations.

Besides Tata as chairman, the committee consisted of managing director R K Krishna Kumar, Deputy Managing Director S Ramakrishna and director N A Soonawala. Indian Hotels has already received offers of $ 115 million to $ 125 million for Lexington in New York and $ 60 million for Chicago's Executive Plaza. A decision to sell off these two properties will be taken soon.

As the core committee started taking decisions on the foreign operations, Menezes was excluded from the process, which resulted in the executive Director asking for an early retirement. Menezes was reportedly offered a senior position in Tata Exports, but he declined the offer.

Indian Hotels said in the fax that the restructuring of Indian Hotels' foreign operetions, specially in the US and UK which has incurred substantial liabilities over the years is in process. The company, sources say, will evaluatethe offers and sell off the three properties to focus on the Indian operations.