Ansal Properties ventures into hospitality

NEW DELHI: Ansal Properties and Infrastructure Ltd (APIL) on Friday said it has floated a new Special Purpose Vehicle with Ambience Hospitality Management Pvt Ltd to set up 30 hotels with an investment of Rs 2000 crore.

APIL, subsidiary of Ansal API, and Ambience Hospitality Management would have an equity of 80 per cent and 20 per cent respectively in the SPV. With an investment of Rs 2000 crore, the company is planning to set up 30 hotels within 10 years.

The proposed SPV would build palace hotels, golf resorts, business hotels, leisure hotels, spas, clubs and service apartments. The palace hotels would be owned and managed by the SPV and the golf resorts and clubs under the SPV would be managed and branded by an international hotel chain.

The palace hotel in Jodhpur and golf resort in Lucknow in the luxury hotel segment are in the pipeline and can be mentioned of these 30 hotels.

Ansal API Chairman Sushil Ansal said, "With our 40 years of experience in the real estate sector in India and overseas, we now plan to open 20 hotels in next 10 years. We have hotel sites at Greater Noida, Mohali, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Amritsar, Lucknow, Ghaziabad and other cities in south India."

Ambience Hospitality Management Ltd under Vipin Luthra, owns and manages The Palms-Town and Country, is also the company responsible for making 'Geoffrey's' and 'The Oriental Bloom'.

"The hospitality sector is growing at the rate of 8.8 per cent annually in India, we now have the opportunity to tap the growth by this SPV," Luthra said.