It?s finally curtains to The Oberoi Group?s more than three-year long sales and marketing alliance with the Hilton International with effect from Monday night. ?The tie-up ends tonight,? said PRS Oberoi, chairman, The Oberoi Group on Monday, adding that the company parted ways with Hilton following the latter tying up with real estate company DLF Ltd.

?We didn?t expect them (Hilton Group) to form a joint venture with any company other than us,? Oberoi said. Further, Hilton?s plan to foray into the three-star hotel segment with ?Garden Inns? was another major reason for parting ways, as that would have degraded Oberoi?s brand and would have confused clients, said Oberoi.

As per the alliance, the Oberoi group was responsible for management and marketing in India, while Hilton was responsible for the sales and marketing of the hotels worldwide.

In line with the fall out, the Oberoi group on Monday launched its new brand identity of five-star Trident hotels, wherein the existing ?Trident Hilton? hotels will be re-branded as ?Trident?. ?Trident Hilton? hotels located in Gurgaon, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Cochin, Bhubanes-war and Chennai will know be called ?Trident?, while the ?Hilton Towers? in Mumbai will be renamed to ?Trident Nariman Point, Mumbai.?

The new company logo, inspired by legendary Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, has three colours including black, grey and red, forming the letter ?T? and will be soon seen across the media. The company will be spending around $1 million on re-branding. ?A new website is also under construction,? said John Kuruvilla, executive vice president – marketing, The Oberoi Group.

Currently, there are nine Trident hotels and in two and half years? time, the group will be adding three more to the kitty. The group is setting up a 436 key Trident hotel at Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai for an estimated cost of Rs 700 crore, which will be ready by the last quarter of this year.

Also to come up are a 320 key Trident hotel at the new international airport in Bangalore, a 334 key Trident hotel at Cyber City, Hyderabad and a 200 key Trident hotel at Chandigarh.

?The Bandra-Kurla property will be owned by EIH Ltd, part of the Oberoi group, while Bangalore and Hyderabad will be managed properties,? said Rattan Keswani, president, Trident Hotels.

The group is exploring all options including joint ventures, management contracts and ownership for Trident hotels. ?Some will be owned by EIH, EIH Associates and some will be managed,? said Oberoi. The first Trident Hotel had opened in 1988 in Chennai.

On how many Trident hotels are planned, Oberoi said, ?We don?t want to go big but grow with quality.? Despite both the brands ? Oberoi and Trident – being five-star hotel brands, Oberoi hotels cost 40-50% more than Trident, depending upon the city.

Oberoi group is also looking at expanding its brands overseas. ?We see real growth in places like Middle East, of course India, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, The Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore,? Oberoi said.