The world's largest chain of hotels, Best Western International, announced on Friday its plan to expand in India by starting 100 hotels in the next 10 years.
The hotels would be set up under the leadership of BWI's master licensee Cabana Hotel Management Private Limited, which has 30 years of expertise.
Cabana would invest $1.2 billion, while BWI would provide its brand name and expertise in running of these hotels, Cabana Co-Chairman Prabhu Goel said.
"The money has been raised through internal funding, but we will have some private equity and debt financing coming in after some time," he said.
As an exclusive master licensee holder in India, Cabana would identify existing properties to lend the BWI brand name, it would try and acquire stakes in some
properties currently under development and also identify properties to be developed and owned by the group itself, he said.
In Bangalore, the group would set up its premier hotel at Whitefield. The 225-room hotel with an investment in excess of $12 million was expected to generate employment for 100 people when it is completed by 2009, he said.
The Bangalore hotel was aimed at attracting the IT sector that was concentrated in and around the area.
"We were in discussion with 3-4 groups in the city for sub-licensing," he said.
Currently, there were six hotels under development around India, including those in Ooty, Rameswaram, Jaisalmer and Kanyakumari, he said adding the focus would be to have local entrepreneurs to develop future projects.
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