It runs a chain of mid-market casual dining restaurants, Barbeque Nation. Plans are afoot to take the number from the present five to 100 by 2009-10.
KOLKATA: Baroda-based Sayaji Hotels is weighing plans to launch a new hotel brand. Things are at the drawing board stage but the company is looking at something quite different from its existing model of a business resort complex with hotel, banqueting & convention facilities and restaurants.
Sayaji Hotels is also planning to dilute about 20% or Rs 40 crore of its equity one year down the line.
Sajid Dhanani, managing director, Sayaji Hotels, unwilling to disclose the segment it will tap, told DNA Money, “We will decide in three months time whether we can go ahead with our new hotel model. If we do, the properties will become operational in two years time.”
Sayaji has two mid-market properties in Baroda and Indore.
A third one, a 250-keys hotel, is coming up at Pune. It will become operational this year. At the moment, however, the company, according to Dhanani, is concentrating on expanding its restaurants business, at an investment of Rs 350 crore.
It runs a chain of mid-market casual dining restaurants, Barbeque Nation. Plans are afoot to take the number from the present five to 100 by 2009-10.
The company will be funding the first 25 restaurants from internal accruals and a debt of Rs 200 crore, of which Rs 50 crore has been tied up with banks.
“We may consider an equity dilution to fund our subsequent restaurant ventures. The percentage to be offloaded will depend on the company’s valuation but it could be around 20%,” Dhanani said.
There are two Barbecue Nations in Bangalore and one each in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Gurgaon. The model follows a single-point menu pricing of Rs 400 which includes a live barbecue on the table as well as a buffet.
The company, with core competency in food and beverages, recently tied up with Ginger Hotels of the Taj Group for running the latter’s food business, the Buffet Junction, at the Baroda hotel.
“This is a pilot project. We may evolve it further if it works out well for us,” Dhanani said, taking note of the increasing trend of food outsourcing among hotels.
The company, which is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, is awaiting a National Stock Exchange listing.
m_madhumita@dnaindia.net
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