Lemon Tree adds fifth property in South

Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd today announced the opening up of its fifth property in South India, located in the IT hub of Hyderabad, at an investment of Rs 200 crore.

This is the 14th property of Lemon Tree Hotel chain in the country, which takes its total room inventory to 1,500 with the addition of 267 rooms in the latest one here set up to cater to the IT hinterland.

The Chairman and Managing Director of Lemon Tree Hotels, Mr Patu Keswani, told

Business Line, “Lemon Tree Hotels will add six hotels to the existing portfolio within the next two years, taking the number to 20 hotels across 15 cities with inventory of 2,800 rooms. Of these three properties will come up before the end of this fiscal.”

“This is the first hotel in the city under the Lemon Tree brand. But second along with the Red Fox hotel chain. The upbeat business environment and growth in Hyderabad has attracted us to set up three more properties in the city by next year. Two of them will come up in the Gachibowli area again in the IT hub,” he said.

“The project located in the Hitec City was developed in the land allotted by L&T for Rs.30 crore.

"We have invested Rs 200 crore in developing the property,” he said.

Referring to the company financials, he said, “they expect to hit the Rs 400-crore mark by the end of this year up from Rs 300 crore.

"We are planning an IPO sometime in 2012. The company's initial investors include Warburg Pincus, Shinshei Bank and Kotak Bank. The funds were infused in two tranches of Rs 300 crore and Rs 180 crore respectively.