Royal Orchid Hotels Ltd (ROHL) has acquired a Tanzania-based company, Multi Hotels, which owns 30 acres of prime beachfront property in Dar-e-salaam, for $2 million.
Acquires properties for $2m; to build a resort for $25m
MUMBAI: Royal Orchid Hotels Ltd (ROHL) has acquired a Tanzania-based company, Multi Hotels, which owns 30 acres of prime beachfront property in Dar-e-salaam, for $2 million.
The Bangalore-based company will spend $25 million to build a resort in this property.
Chender Baljee, chairman and managing director, ROHL, said: “The opportunity looked very good especially at the cost which it was coming to us.
And since we had been considering international foray for a while now, we decided to begin the journey with East Africa. In fact, we will be looking for more opportunities in this part of the globe in the years to come.”
Envisaging an overall investment of $25 million, the proposed resort will be branded as Royal Orchid resort. Funding is through a mix of debt and equity in 1: 1.5 ratio.
The management is also keen on exploring a co-branding option considering the East African market is primarily frequented by European tourists.
“A branding/marketing alliance for this resort looks to be a sensible option to explore.
However, the project is yet to kick off and should be ready in over two years from now. So we still have time to finalise plans in that direction, till then the property will be branded as Royal Orchid Resorts,” said Baljee.
The Dar-e-salaam property will also mark ROHL’s entry in the resorts category as its Indian operations mainly consist of hotels in the four-star and five-star segments.
On the domestic front, the company recently entered the Pune market with a management contract for their first stand-alone serviced apartment property called Royal Orchid Golden Suites at Kalyani Nagar in Pune.
A second hotel in Pune Royal Orchid Central is being planned in the business category and will be launched by December-end at Kalyani Nagar.
Thus, by the end of this fiscal, ROHL currently has 10 operational hotels — Bangalore (four), Mysore (two), Hyderabad and Jaipur one each and Pune two.
Among their upcoming hotels, the promoters have identified location for their entry in the country’s commercial capital - Mumbai.
The upcoming property will be located at Powai central suburbs of Mumbai. The precise details on the same are not made public as yet.
The Indian hospitality company also has an exclusive licensing agreement for the development of Ramada brand in India. Under this agreement, ten hotels under a combination of ownership and management will be launched within the next five years.
The first one — Royal Orchid Harsha in Bangalore — is currently undergoing renovations and will be re-branded as a Ramada hotel.
According to company officials, final inspection of the hotel will be done in another couple of months from now and eventually the re-branding will come in place.
ROHL also has a 100% subsidiary called Peppermint Hotels that operates in the budget/economy segment with the Peppermint chain of hotels.
The subsidiary plans to launch 50 such hotels in five years. The first Peppermintis currently operational in Hyderabad.
t_ashish@dnaindia.net
s_nandan@dnaindia.net
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