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Lead Story
DLF ropes in MoT's Rajeev Talwar
He will head its hospitality, tourism division Jyoti Koul & Savio Rodrigues - New Delhi In a bid to accelerate
its ambitious plans in the Indian tourism and hospitality industry, DLF has managed
to rope in Rajeev Talwar, additional director general, Ministry of Tourism (MoT),
Government of India, who will head its hospitality and tourism division.
Confirming this to Express Hospitality, a DLF spokesperson in a telephonic conversation
admitted that this was true. With Talwar on board, industry experts expect DLF
to surge ahead with its hospitality plans which include its Initial Public Offering
that will pump in over Rs 4,000 crore in the Indian hospitality industry. The
group plans to set up over 125 hotels by 2015 and is looking at setting up properties in all segments: super luxury, four-star, business, budget hotels as well as service apartments.
K P Singh, chairman of DLF, had in the past
expressed in an interview, "We are planning to have super luxury hotels in
five to six cities within seven years and over 100 business and four-star hotels
in 50 cities in the next ten years."
Apart for its newly formed alliance with Hilton for its business hotels, DLF is close to inking
similar alliances with Four Seasons for its upscale luxury hotels and with Best
Western for its Seven Seas service apartment brand. Sources also revealed that
the group is in close talks with Starwood as well to forge an alliance. However,
whether it will be for its budget brand Aloft or for Four Points by Sheraton is
yet unknown. The DLF management remains non-committal on this front.
Hilton, DLF to tie hospitality knot Relationship to give birth to two separate hotel companies
Savio Rodrigues - Mumbai
Ending speculations that have
been doing the rounds of the Indian real estate and hospitality sectors for over
six months, Indian real estate major DLF and international hotel major Hilton
International announced that they will forge an alliance to form two separate
companies shortly - one for management and the other for hotel development.
It is being touted as being India's first unique alliance between a real estate major
and an international hotel company. Sources from both DLF and Hilton disclosed,
under strict conditions of anonymity, that both of them will have 75:25 per cent
partnership. In the management company, Hilton will invest 75 per cent and DLF
25 per cent while in the hotel development company, DLF will invest 75 per cent
and Hilton 25 per cent.
However, both companies have
left options open to each other to work independently with other hotel or real
estate companies for other projects. When contacted, Lenny Menezes, country manager
(India) for Hilton International, was only willing to confirm that Hilton, in
its new focus on India, is looking at making investments. "We are not only
looking at management options but are also keen on investing," he expressed.
However, he refused to reveal the total sum of investment that Hilton would be
looking at, adding only that it will be announced shortly.
Hilton's move to invest in the Indian market under the newly formed company will be the
first of its kind for an international hotel company. So far, international hotel
companies have been investing in individual hotel projects. These include InterContinental's
stake in the Marine Drive property in Mumbai and Starwood's investment in Westin
in Gurgaon. |
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