Indian Hotels to complete 43 projects over 3-4 years

Indian Hotels Co that owns Taj chain plans to execute a pipeline of 43 projects over the next three to four years, its Managing Diretor Raymond Bickson said on Thursday.

This will result in an addition of 10,000 to 12,000 rooms. The Tata group company plans to hive off its international properties into a separate company, he said on the sidelines of the Hotel Investment Forum India. The majority of these (addition) will be in India. We have planned growth for Ginger, Gateway, Vivanta and Taj. But outside India, it will be just with Taj." The company was also looking at various options to raise funds, he said but declined to elaborate. While growth in 2011 would be spread across all its properties, the emphasis would be on expanding its budget category under Ginger brand. "Ginger for us is a value proposition. It's an occupancy-driven property," he told Reuters Insider. The company is planning to increase the number of Ginger hotels to 150-200 this decade, he said. At present, there are 30 hotels under this brand in the country. Bickson also said the average room rentals (ARR) had been restored to pre-2008 levels. An economic slowdown in 2008-09 had impacted business travel, which was worsened by the terror attacks in Mumbai, but the industry had started seeing an upswing in both business and leisure travel in the country. While the company was not planning to raise ARRs this fiscal, it would consider increasing room tariffs in the next season, starting September. The Tata group is also planning to hive off its international properties into a separate company over the next few years. He said it was "too early" to say whether Indian Hotels plans to list this entity. At 12.46 pm, shares of the company were down 0.74% at Rs 101 in a Mumbai market that was down 0.94%.