The Hindu Business Line : Appu Hotels acquires property in Coimbatore

According to informed sources , it has acquired an 81-room hotel, Sohan Regency belonging to Sohan Singh Hotels Ltd, which had been auctioned last week as part of a debt recovery process by the Tourism Finance Corporation of India. Appu Hotels, which made a Rs 5.15-crore bid, has been declared the successful bidder, the sources said.

While statutory clearances are awaited, Appu Hotels is planning to spend more than Rs 3 crore to upgrade the hotel. It will be developed as a business class hotel, which will target domestic and international travellers to the industrial centres in Coimbatore and to neighbouring towns like Tirupur, a major centre for textile exports.

The four-acre property is located 5 km from the Coimbatore airport on Avinashi Road. The location will help the hotel tap the fast-growing segment of business travellers in that area. Apart from the traditional engineering, textile and knitwear-related industries, Coimbatore is also emerging as a destination for the information technology sector. IT companies are acquiring land for proposed projects.

The acquisition marks the launch of Appu Hotels's plans to set up a chain of business segment hotels in smaller cities such as Madurai, Kanyakumari, Chidambaram and Palani, apart from Coimbatore, the sources said. All of these cities are either business or tourist centres, which present an opportunity to set up quality hotels of international standards.

However, it is yet to be decided whether Appu Hotels will go it alone with this acquisition or link up with a hotel chain like it has done for its hotel in Chennai, which has tied up with Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts.

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