Company plans to open 30 hotels, adding 3,000 rooms by 2015 to become the country's third largest hotel chain
The Pride Hotels group is on an expansion mode and is working to position itself as a national hotel chain with footprints in major cities. It plans to open five 5-star hotels over the next five years with a total investment of Rs 800 crore.
“A massive expansion plan is in the works and we want to emerge as a national hotel chain, with a presence in almost all regions of the country,” S P Jain, founder chairman and managing director, Pride Hotels, told FC Estate. He said land has already been acquired for three hotels in Mumbai, Goa and Alibaug and they would be completed within three years. Two 5-star hotels will also come up in New Delhi and Hyderabad within five years. At presents, the group operates 5-star luxury hotels in Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Banglore.
Jain said the company would also construct three Pride Resorts. “We will build Pride Resorts in Kerala, Alibaug and Goa,” he said, adding that the company is already running its resort properties in Mahabaleshwar and Jaipur.
The Company has also lined up 10 new Pride Biznotels in strategic tier II and tier III cities that would be operational by 2015.
These will be three-four star, full-service business hotels.
“The tariff would be Rs. 2,000-Rs 4,000 per room, per day, whereas the 5-star luxury hotels would charge Rs. 5000-Rs 10,000 per room, per day,” Jain said. At present, the company runs five company-owned Pride Biznotels at Puducherry, Ranipet, near Chennai, Chinchwad, near Pune, New Delhi and Aurangabad.
The hotel chain has an inventory of 1,000 rooms and 38 conference halls that can seat 50 to 2,000 people
While the 120-room, 5-star hotel in Bangalore was launched recently, the Goa hotel will have 100 rooms, entailing an investment of Rs 55 crore.
Jain said during the past five decades, only few world-class hotel groups have establishes their footprints across India.
“By 2015, we will have 30 decades, only with 3,000 luxury rooms in 30 cities. We hope to become the third largest hotel chain in the country,” he added. At presents, the hotel chain has an inventory of 1,000 rooms and 38 conference halls that can seats 50 to 2,000 people, besides 28 restaurants.
To fund the projects, the company plans to raise Rs 200 crore through an initial public offering (IPO) in January 2010, while Rs 250 crore will come from internal accruals. The hotel chain also plans to raise Rs 100 crore from private equity partners.
Jain said due to the global economic slowdown, business was down by 20-25 per cent and at present, the swine flu pandemic had affected occupancy. “It is a temporary phenomenon; we expect business to pick up post October,” he said.
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