The Hindu Business Line : Hotel Leelaventure on expansion mode

THE Mumbai-based Hotel Leelaventure Ltd, which owns The Leela Palaces and Resorts chain of luxury hotels, is in the midst of an expansion drive that will see it adding around 1,000 rooms over the next three years.

The company will start hotels in Udaipur, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad, said Mr Peter J. Leitgeb, President, The Leela Palaces and Resorts. Besides, the company will also add another 140 rooms to its property in Bangalore and complete the refurbishment of its hotel in Mumbai, he told Business Line.

The company has also looked at a couple of possible sites for a hotel in New Delhi. Having a hotel in the capital is "on top of our agenda", he emphasised.

The company's board has just approved a proposal to set up a hotel in Pune. Expected to be ready in about two years, the hotel will have around 200 rooms and will be built with an investment of approximately Rs 160 crore, Mr Leitgeb said.

The company's 92-room hotel in Udaipur is expected to be ready by the end of next year, he added.

The company's 410-room hotel in Chennai is expected to be ready by early 2008, he said. Also on the cards is a 300-room hotel in Hyderabad.

The company is focussed aggressively on promoting its newest property — the recently acquired Leela Kovalam Beach near Thiruvananthapuram.

The company is in the midst of finalising a strategic alliance between its Kovalam property and a luxury lakeside hotel in central Kerala, Mr Leitgeb said.

Thirty of the 58 rooms in the `club' wing of the Leela Kovalam will be ready to receive guests by mid-December, he said. The `club' at this property will be fully functional by the middle of February next year, he added.

The company, which clocked a turnover of approximately Rs 271.34 crore last fiscal, is looking at a turnover of over Rs 330 crore this financial year, Mr Leitgeb said.

In the first six months of the ongoing financial year, the company's turnover grew 35 per cent compared to the same period last fiscal, he pointed out.

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