Sweden-based small boutique format five-star hotel chain, Svenska Hotels, plans to have 25 hotels in India by 2020 with a total room inventory of 1,200. The company is looking at a mix of owned and managed properties in the country. It has set aside an investment of Rs 1,000 crore over the next 10 years to go into land acquisition and setting up of properties. The money is a mix of debt and equity. Moreover, the company expects a private equity investment of around $50 million (around Rs 225 crore), part of the overall investment planned by the company, by the end of 2011.
?We are talking about six properties by 2011, of which five will be owned and one managed. In the coming times, we would want to have a fair mix of managed and owned properties. We want at least 60% of the 25 hotels under management contract,? said Zia Shiekh, chief executive officer and chairman and managing director, Svenska Hotels. He added the company is also open to joint ventures with multiple real-estate developers for development of properties. Since Svenska Hotels is a sub-100 room format, the properties can be set up in shopping malls, IT parks and special economic zones (SEZ) easily.
?We are in talks with a few of the developers and will be making few alliance announcements by next month,? said a senior official of the company.
Moreover, Svenska Hotels also plans to promote in-house restaurants as an independent business. Indicating that food and beverage (f&b) is key focus area for the company, Shiekh said, ?We see 50% of our revenues coming from f&b and want to take our in-house restaurants into standalone formats in the country.? The company has four f&b brands including Soul – contemporary Indian specialty restaurant, Sensen – Pan Asian restaurant, Miro ? Mediterranean specialty restaurant and Mesa ? global cuisine restaurant.
The hotel company opened its first property in Mumbai this month and will be opening three more properties in the next year including Bangalore, Bhilwara (Rajasthan) and Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh). Some of the states looked at for properties include New Delhi, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Uttarkhand. It is targeting Tier I and Tier II cities for its hotels and restaurant brands.