New Delhi, Feb 25: Delhi-based UG Hotels and Resorts Ltd has drawn up plans to open four-star hotels in Delhi, Mussoorie and Nainital.The company, which owns and operates a five-star resort near Shimla, has already bought land for the proposed hotels. The hotels are to be commissioned within the next four years.
UG Hotels president Prem Dham said that the company will be investing between Rs 35 crore to Rs 40 crore on the three projects. "We have already spent about Rs 5 crore on purchasing the land," he said.
The company plans to raise the money through a combination of internal accruals and loans from financial institutions. "The company has not yet finalised the detailed project report," said Dham.
UG Hotels and Resorts Ltd, which had a turnover of about Rs 2 crore in financial year ending March 31, 1997, expects to record a turnover of over Rs 4 crore this fiscal.
The proposed hotel in South Delhi will have at least 100 rooms and will be targeted at the upper middle class. The hotels inMussoorie and Nainital, which will be promoted as resort destinations will have 50 rooms each. "The company has not yet decided if the hotel in Delhi will be one with a four- or five-star facility," he added.
Besides the three properties, UG Hotels is also in the final stages of negotiations with a company in Goa for acquiring an existing four-star hotel.
Dham said that the company intends acquiring a majority stake in the hotel, which is spread over seven acres, and then running the property according to its own standards.
Dham said that the total investment envisaged in acquiring the property is about Rs 12 crore.
"The company will be raising 60 per cent of this amount through internal accruals and the balance will be raised through loans. The property is in mortgage and we are sorting out the loan structure," he added.
UG Hotels plans to open resorts and hotels in Jaipur, Dharamsala, Manali and Siliguri too. "The company is in talks for acquiring existing facilities in Dharamsala and Manali," hesaid.
The company is also negotiating with an established international hotel chain for a tie-up and has plans to form a joint venture with a Mexican food chain for setting up restaurants all over the country.
Dham said he is introducing `Indian Hoteliers Pool', a concept which enables single-location property owners to join hands with other destinations. "The idea is to jointly market and sell each other's location on an incentive basis. Over 35 hoteliers across the country have agreed to sell each other's hotels and they will have joint marketing offices situated in every location with a centralised reservation office," he added.
Copyright(c)1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
