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Sankar Radhakrishnan

Thiruvananthapuram, Sept. 8 Berggruen Hotels, promoted by the New York-based Berggruen Holdings, has announced its international foray with a joint venture with the Morocco-based Filacom Pvt Ltd.

Mr Atul Lall, Chief Operating Officer, International Division, Berggruen Hotels, told Business Line that the company is also looking at developing hotels/ resorts in Sri Lanka and Maldives. Also on the cards are hotel or service apartment projects in Turkey, Dubai, Sharjah, Bahrain and Qatar. The company is also exploring the market in Egypt and Vietnam. The plan is to have at least 10 hotels outside India in a couple of years, he added.

The company’s international projects will be launched either under its ‘Keys’ boutique budget hotel brand or an upscale brand it will unveil shortly, Mr Lall revealed. While expanding internationally, the company will follow the “same three-pronged strategy of setting up resorts, hotels and service apartments that we have been following in India,” said Mr Partha Chatterjee, Chief Marketing Officer, Berggruen Hotels. The focus, though, will remain on budget hotels, he added.

In Morocco, Berggruen will develop seven hotels in six cities including Casablanca, Rabat and Fez. Six of these will be 100-room budget hotels, while Casablanca will also have a 170-room upscale property, Mr Lall said. The investment in these hotels is expected to be approximately $50 million.

Meanwhile, in India, the company expects to open its first ‘Keys’ hotel in Thiruvananthapuram in April next year, said Mr Chatterjee. The company has acquired properties in 16 locations, with more in the pipeline, he pointed out. In Goa, Puducherry and Kovalam near Thiruvananthapuram the company will build resorts, while in Bangalore and Kolkata it is looking at developing service apartments, he added.

Though the company would prefer to either own or lease sites and develop them, it is open to exploring management contracts, he said. For instance, it has entered into a management contract for a hotel in Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra and is also in the process of tying up with several major real-estate companies, Mr Chatterjee added.

More Stories on : Strategy | Alliances & Joint Ventures | Hotels

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