Mantri Realty is planning to foray into the hospitality business and has drawn up plans to set up two five-star hotels and a clutch of three and four-star hotels across India by 2010.The total investment in the business is envisaged at around Rs 2,500 crore, of which Mantri will be bringing in Rs 800 crore as its equity investment. The remaining Rs 1,800-1,900 crore will be sourced through debt and strategic investors."We plan to invest Rs 800 crore as our equity in the venture and have a network of 10 hotels with 2,500-rooms pan-India by 2010," Sunil Mantri, chairman, Mantri Realty told PTI today.Negotiations are currently underway with three leading hotel chains for managing its hotels. The three entities are a subsidiary of Hyatt, one Israel-based company and an upcoming domestic hotel chain, Mantri said, without disclosing their identities.A subsidiary will be set up for the business and around 25-30% would be off-loaded to a couple of strategic partners. "We will finalise our financial partners by early 2008," Mantri said.Two five-star hotels will be set up in Bangalore and Hyderabad, while three and four-star hotels would be set up in Sholapur, Nagpur, Goa, Pune and Hyderabad."Our hotels in Goa, Sholapur and Hyderabad should be up and running by 2009, while our five-star hotels should be ready by 2010," Mantri said.
