The Hindu Business Line : Lemon Tree eyeing acquisitions

Pune June 1 Krizm Hotels Pvt Ltd plans to build a total of 2700 rooms under the Lemon Tree brand in India over the next few years, and is also looking at opportunistic inorganic growth by acquiring hotels in Ooty and Manali.

Mr Patu Keswani, Chairman and Managing Director, said that leisure segment hotels were amongst a clutch of non-performing assets offered for sale by the Tourism Finance Corporation of India.

Second in Pune

In the city to launch its 124-room Lemon Tree hotel at the Rajiv Gandhi Technology Park at Hinjewadi, Mr Keswani said a second hotel under the brand would also be put up in Pune. The company had entered into a partnership with the Chordia group to acquire, renovate and launch the former Amir Hotel as a Lemon Tree property.

The 200-room hotel, that was acquired at a cost of Rs 88 crore, will have a 100,000 sq ft mall on the first two floors, and be ready by early 2009, he said.

Lemon Tree, a business brand, now has four operational hotels, and 14 more properties in 12 cities aggregating 1,700 rooms are slated for completion by 2010. Plans to add 1,000 rooms in Navi Mumbai, Coimbatore, Kolkata, Ranchi, Raipur, Nagpur, Bangalore and Mysore are also under finalisation.

Training personnel

In the meantime, the Lemon Tree at Gurgaon, its first property, may be converted into an institute to train the 4,000-odd personnel that would man its properties. The company will also launch four hotels in Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur and Hyderabad totalling 540 rooms under the budget brand Red FoxS.

While Lemon Tree designs, develops and manages all its properties, the food and beverage function could be outsourced in the budget brand, Mr Keswani indicated, adding that discussions were on with the Nirulas to set up restaurant in the Red Fox hotel at Delhi.

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