Whitbread PLC of the UK is the latest entrant to the Indian hospitality segment. Premier Travel Inn, the group’s budget hotel brand, repackaged as the Premier Inn, will partner Emaar-MGF for 80 budget hotels in the country at an investment of GBP 150 million over the next 10 years.
Betting on profits in the first year of its operations in 2009, Whitbread
is upbeat about a 13 to 14% return on its investment. Emaar-MGF will
chip in with an equal share of GBP 150 million on the project.
The
venture will add 12,000 rooms to the branded budget hotel market
in India.
Whitbread runs a family of brands in the hotel, restaurant and
health and fitness sector in the UK.
Premier Travel Inn, Brewers
Fayre, Beefeater, Costa and David Lloyd Leisure are the major
brands the group owns, of which Costa and Beefeater are already present
in India.
Meanwhile, Sahara Infrastructure and Housing has announced
its intention to construct a five-star hotel in Lucknow. This
would be the first of the 217 hotels it plans to have in each of its
Sahara City Homes projects.
The Sahara Star 5-star hotel was
inaugurated in Santacruz, Mumbai earlier this week. The first
phase of the hotel has a capacity for 223 rooms, while the 2nd phase
will see 412 additional rooms being added.
