NEW DELHI: The Saraf group, which owns the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai, is headed south now. It plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore in the next five years to set up eight five-star business hotels integrated with service apartments in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai in the first phase.
In the second phase, it plans to take up similar development in Kolkata, Chandigarh, Pune and Delhi or Gurgaon.
The group, which owns the Unison Hotels and has a substantial stake in Asian Hotels, is looking at south India as an important market. It has already acquired two acres in Hyderabad for a five-star hotel and is close to signing the land acquisition deals in Bangalore and Chennai.
“Our strategy is to follow the IT trail across India. To begin with, we plan to develop a 220 room business hotel and 175 service apartment complex right next to Hitech City, to service the apartment in general,” Umesh Saraf, managing director of Unison Hotels said. According to Saraf, the company would invest close to Rs 150 crore on the Hyderabad hotel and service apartment block, which are expected to be functional by mid-2008.
Seeing a big growth in service apartments, meant for guests who need to stay longer and need a residential premise, the group is looking at building five-star hotels integrated with service apartments. Later, however, it aims to tap the service apartments in a big way by going to metros and business hubs.
Asked how the company plans to generate funds for the expansion, Saraf said “We are keeping all options open but presently. The funding would primarily be from internal accruals and bank loans. However, we are open to the idea of raising money through the capital markets.”
