The Pride Hotels announced its plan of an IPO to meet its expansion plan in the first quarter of 2008. The Pride Hotels are present in Pune, Nagpur, Ahmedabad and Chennai.

Expansion plans:

Pride Hotels announced today, that it has received a significant investment from Kotak India Real Estate Fund towards part financing of its Rs. 340 crore expansion-cum-renovation plan.

The Group aims to utilize the funds towards setting up new hotels in Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore and Alibaug. Pride Hotels has recently acquired 4.5 acres land at Alibaug, where it proposes to set up a resort cum spa. Pride Hotel is also planning to construct 200 rooms Hotel near the international airport in Mumbai. The Bangalore Hotel is nearly on completion which will open by June 2008.

The Pride Hotel now offers total 430 rooms in Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Pune and Chennai and post expansion it will offer 1126 rooms in the 5 star categories. Currently The Pride Hotels has 11 food outlets which include restaurants, coffee shops and bars and 19 banquet hall and conference rooms in their properties. Pride hotel has a growth of 77% on total earnings between the year 2006-2007 in comparison to 48% growth in the year 2005-2006.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. S. P. Jain, Chairman of The Pride Group of Hotels said that, “With this key investment from the Kotak realty fund and Mauritius based primary fund; we are now close to finalising sources of funds for our expansion plans. We have lucrative business segment markets of the country, viz. Mumbai, Goa, Bangalore and Alibaug.

Given the growth rates in the in-bound business travel sector, Mr. Jain further added that, in India we have total 1,10,000 rooms in star category of Hotel where as the demand is more then 2,00,000 rooms as per the survey  by FHRAI and Department of Tourism and clearly there is high shortage of 90,000 rooms. Therefore the Department of Tourism has offered incentive scheme for construction of 1 to 3 star Hotels.

Mr. Satyen Jain, CEO – The Pride Group of Hotels further elaborated on the Group’s future plans and said that,” While 5 Star Hotels in India are at par with global competitors, there is a near absence of internationally acceptable 3 Star and 4 Star Hotels. This gap will now be filled by the Pride Biznotel chain – moderately priced, upscale, full service, business and leisure hotels – the perfect choice for today’s value conscious traveler.”

The Pride Hotel Management team comprises of Mr. Arun Nayar – Director Operations, who has worked with Peninsula Hotel in Dubai and Atria in Bangalore. Mr. Vivek Pathiyan – Vice President – Operations, has worked with some of the finest chains like Marriott, Leela, Ramada and The Orchid, have brought their rich experience and are instrumental in working towards the  vision of the Group.

Sourced From: Art of Crafting Communication