Ansals form JV to build 30 hotels

Ansal Properties & Infrastructure Limited and Ambience Hospitality Management today announced a 80:20 joint venture for constructing 30 hotels over the next 10 years with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore.

Ambience Hospitality is the owner of the Geoffrey's and Oriental Bloom chain of restaurants.

The proposed joint venture company will set up hotels in the five and four-star categories including palace hotels, golf resorts, business hotels, leisure hotels, spas, clubs and serviced apartments. The JV may also tie up with leading international hotel chains for some of its projects.

"With our 40 years of experience in the real estate sector in India and overseas markets, we feel confident of launching our own chain of hotels throughout India," said Sushil Ansal, chairman, Ansal API.

Of late, many Delhi-based realty firms have been announcing their forays into hospitality along with joint venture partners. DLF and Hilton International had set up a 74:26 joint venture last year to develop 50-75 properties. The realty firm also has a joint venture with Bharat Hotels, owner of The Grand chain of hotels, for a hotel in Chandigarh. The two companies are currently in talks to set up more hotels together.

Unitech is also foraying into hospitality and has planned 28 hotels with 4,900 rooms by 2010. "We want to be neutral in our dealings. Instead of having one partner for all our hotels, we would rather be flexible and choose the right partner for each property," Sanjay Chandra, managing director, Unitech earlier told Business Standard. Unitech has so far tied up with Marriot for its Courtyard brand and with Carlson Hospitality for the Country Inn brand.

Earlier this month, Emaar MGF had forged a 50:50 joint venture with Whitbread, a hospitality firm from the United Kingdom, to develop 80 hotels of the brand Premier Travel Inn. This joint venture will invest $600 million, or Rs 2,500 crore, by 2017.

Prior to that, Emaar MGF had forged a joint venture with Accor Hotels to set up 100 Formule 1 hotels across the country at an investment of $300 million.