|  NRI, Sant Singh Chatwal will invest Rs 4,500 crore ($ 1 billion) by 2009 for setting up a chain of hotels, including 7-star projects in India , reports Hindu.
All hotels would be state-of-the-art with different food restaurants, discotheques and conference rooms. "We want to create convention centres with a capacity for 2,000-3,000 people in every hotel," Chatwal, President and CEO of the Manhattan based Hampshire Hotels and Resorts (HHR), said.
"We are doing the master planning for phase-I, which includes high-end 7-star hotels in major cities like Delhi , Noida, Mumbai and Bangalore and dream hotels in Kochi , Hyderabad and Chennai," he said.
" India is a virgin country in the hospitality sector... I would like to explore the potential here," said Chatwal.
He said he has already acquired land in Bangalore , Noida, Kochi and Hyderabad while negotiations are on in Mumbai and Chennai.
HHR owns hotels in the US , UK and Thailand with over 2,500 rooms in Manhattan . Along with this, the $1.5 billion group has set up Bombay Palace Indian food speciality restaurants around the world including Montreal , Toronto , New York , Washington , Houston , Budapest and Kuala Lumpur .
Chatwal is a trustee of former US President Bill Clinton's William Clinton Foundation, which focuses on global issues of health, security, economic empowerment (HIV/AIDS initiative).
On the funding plans of the project, Chatwal said while 35 per cent would be through capital equity, 65 per cent would be debt. "Equity would be funded by internal accruals. In fact, land has been purchased through equity capital only.
"We are in discussions with financial institutions and banks for the loan component and that should not be a problem at all. As and when funds are required, debts would be raised," he said, adding all the hotels in phase-I would be completed and operational in 2009 before the Commonwealth games.
Chatwal is also known for hosting an extravagant wedding in India for his son Vikram in 2006, when even a national TV news channel aired the event live.
The financial closure would be completed within 60-90 days. 'Foundation stone for the first hotel would be laid in May this year in Kochi followed by other sites', he said.
Details at http://www.hindu.com
Chatwal, had made a similar announcement in May 2005, when he declared his intention to invest $ 100 million in the hotel industry. He might have purchased the land but the hotels have not come into existence yet. For detail of that story,
visit http://www.nriinternet.com/NRI hotels/INDIA/Sant_toInvest_100Milliom.htm |
