Louvre Hotels buys majority stake in India's Sarovar Hotels

PARIS (Reuters) - France's Louvre Hotels Group, part of Chinese hotel firm Jin Jiang International, said on Thursday it bought a majority stake in Indian hotel chain Sarovar Hotels for an undisclosed amount, further expanding its international footprint.

"This deal clearly demonstrates the ambition of Louvre Hotels since its acquisition by Jin Jiang to boost its development through large strategic deals on high potential markets," the statement said.

Jin Jiang, one of China's biggest hotel groups, bought Louvre Hotels in March 2015 for 1.3 billion euros as an expansion platform outside China.

Louvre Hotels is the number two for budget hotels in Europe after France's AccorHotels. It operates 1,175 hotels, ranging from one to five stars - Premiere Classe, Campanile, Kyriad, Tulip Inn, Golden Tulip and Royal Tulip in 51 countries.

Founded in 1994, Sarovar Hotels has 75 hotels in India in the premium, mid-range and budget categories in over 50 cities and has a total of 6,000 rooms.

The two groups will continue developing Sarovar Hotels brands and also support the development through franchises of Louvre Hotels, which has been present in India since 2007 and manages 22 hotels there under its Golden Tulip brand.

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by GV De Clercq)