Lulu Group’s Twenty14 enters mid-scale hotel segment

Twenty14 Holdings, the hospitality investment arm of LuLu Group International of NRI businessman MA Yousuf Ali, which has acquired London’s Great Scotland Yard, has announced its first Indian buy — Abad Airport Hotel Kochi.

The acquisition of the 54-room Abad, located near the Kochi international airport, marks Twenty14 Holdings' entry into the mid-scale hotel segment. The property will be rebranded as Kochi’s first Fairfield-by-Marriott hotel.

Adeeb Ahamed, Managing Director of Twenty14 Holdings, said in a press release that the company aimed to own mid-scale hotels along with luxury properties across the sub-continent to serve foreign tourists. The first phase of development would be in Kerala and Karnataka.

Twenty14 Holdings currently has properties in the UK, Gulf and India. It recently opened its first five-star hotel in the UAE at Business Bay in Dubai. It has acquired Great Scotland Yard, the former headquarters of London’s Metropolitan Police Services in London, for £110 million, to create a five-star hotel. The custom-built 92,000 sq ft hotel, to be called the Great Scotland Yard Hotel, is set to open in early 2017. Twenty14 Holdings also co-owns the Sheraton Oman Hotel in Muscat.