IHG has revealed its plans concerning the opening of 15 hotels in India. In order to do this, the hotelier will form a joint venture with Duet India Hotels Group, a hotel investment and global asset management company.
According to the agreement IHG will invest around US$30 million into the partnership. This will give the company 24% of equity stake. These funds will be used to build 19 new hotels in different cities of India. All properties will be operating under the Holiday Inn Express brand and are scheduled for launch until 2016. This deal will add around 3,300 new guestrooms to the portfolio of the hotelier. Besides the mentioned properties IHG has around 46 hotels in pipeline with the total number of guestrooms reaching 10,000.
Richard Solomons, the chief financial officer of IHG, comments the deal telling, they are glad to establish such a strategic partnership. IHG will invest just a small sum of the money needed to build 19 hotels, while Duet India Hotel Groups will be involved into building and all activities connected with it.
Holiday Inn Express is a mid-market hotel brand that may suit emerging Indian market. All new hotels will be located in metro areas and in fast-developing secondary cities of the country. At the moment it is known IHG will open hotels in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The hotels will be targeted to domestic travellers. Overall, IHG plans to have 150 hotels in India operating by 2020.