Five star hospitality chain Hotel Hindusthan International (HHI) Group is planning to open a 40-villa resort in Goa by next year. Also on cards is an acquisition in Mumbai.
The group is already in possession of 18 acres in Goa and has earmarked nearly Rs 250 crore (including land cost) for constructing the resort. Construction is likely to begin this year.
“We will look for a foreign partner to manage the Goa property. The acquisition in Mumbai is likely to be sealed by the end of this year,” Mr D.K. Jaiswal, Chairman and Managing Director of the group, told Business Line .
For the Mumbai project, HHI is already in talks for acquiring a 100-room hotel in Colaba at a cost of nearly Rs 150 crore.
The Kolkata-headquartered group, which clocked a turnover of Rs 100 crore last fiscal, has nearly 500 rooms across its five properties located in Kolkata, Varanasi, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar and Pune.
4-star Hotels
The HHI group is also planning to come-up with four-star category offerings in tier-II towns that include one hotel each in Patna, Raipur and Indore. Hotels in these towns will have nearly 80 rooms. About Rs 350 crore would be spent in setting up these four-star hotels.
According to Mr Jaiswal, foray into tier-II towns is likely to be through a separate brand. “HHI has established itself as a premium brand already. Entry into other categories would ideally be through a sub-brand,” he added.
The new hotels and acquisition are a part of the Rs 750-crore expansion plan that the group intends to carry out over a four-year period. It is looking to add nearly 400-odd rooms by 2015.
Finances
The Jaiswal-family owns the HHI Group through a private company, SP Jaiswal Estates Pvt Ltd.
According to Mr Jaiswal, the company is likely to offload around 20 per cent of its stake in HHI to private equity funds. Discussions in this regard have already begun.
The stake sale would see a capital infusion of nearly Rs 200-250 crore in the group.
“Once the Mumbai and Goa properties (by 2013 and 2014) come up, we will look to raise more finances for the other projects,” he said.
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