Hyatt Regency plans expansion

Asian Hotels Limited, which owns the Hyatt Regency chain of hotels in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, is planning to develop new properties in several other cities of the country, a top company official said.

Vice-president (sales and marketing) of Asian Hotels Sandip Ganguli told reporters in Kolkata on Wednesday that the company was currently carrying out due diligence for setting up hotels in a number of cities.

The company was particularly looking at IT-driven growth centres like Bangalore and Pune, he said.

Asked about the proposed investments, which the company would undertake in setting up the new properties, he said that it was not yet finalised.

He said the new investments would take place only after the business in Kolkata and Mumbai stabilised. The company opened a 250-room five-star deluxe property in Kolkata and another 425-room luxury hotel in Mumbai, which were being run under the Hyatt Regency brand.

Asian Hotels invested around Rs 180 crore (Rs 1.8 billion) in setting up the Kolkata property.

Asked about the financial performance of the Kolkata property, he said the venture had achieved break even in the first six months of its operations that started in August 2002.

Dismissing reports that Asian Hotels was keen to sell the Kolkata property due to bad business, Ganguli said there was no basis for the "rumour", adding that the company was making new investments and new facilities were being opened.

He said the Kolkata property was now self-sufficient and generating small surpluses after paying up interest payments on debt.

Ganguli said the Kolkata property, at the end of second year of operations, was expected to generate a revenue of Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million).

To a query, he said that Asian Hotels was keen to stick to luxury hotels and there were no plans to enter the budget segment.