Ventive Hospitality, a joint venture between Panchshil Realty and Blackstone, plans to scale its presence in more leisure destinations in India after its recent acquisition of Hilton Goa Resort from Soham Leisure Ventures.
The company, which has a major portfolio in luxury segment, has ₹2,000 crore in capital expenditure for a period of five years to support growth across various segments. This follows the hotel asset management firm investing over ₹110 crore in Soham Leisure Ventures, as per its stock exchange filing.
On the other hand, in July, it had announced a partnership with global hotel brand Marriott International for seven luxury and upscale hotels in India and Sri Lanka, adding 1,548 rooms to its portfolio. Currently, the company has 2,140 keys across 12 operational hotels, with hotel brands such as Marriott International, Hilton Hotels, Minor Hotels, and Atmosphere Core.
“We are actually looking at turning around this resort (Hilton Goa Resort) with repositioning or may be rebranding it. The property overlooks the Nerul river, and there will also be construction of additional rooms there, and there will be some branded villas that we have on our 4-acre land parcel that came along with the deal,” Ranjit Batra, chief executive officer (CEO), Ventive Hospitality, told Business Standard. We will look at other cities, and leisure destinations. We feel leisure is a place still worth tapping into because everyone is doing similar stuff in leisure (segment), but we want to be one step ahead with creativity and a little bit of imagination, creating a vibe, which is missing right now in this segment.”
Batra added that the company has a target of having 4,000 keys in the coming years and that the capital expenditure of ₹2,000 crore will be mainly funded through internal accruals. According to its investment presentation, development and acquisition strategy has driven two-time growth for the company over the last five years, and its plan is to repeat this momentum over the next five years.
“The early stage of development is of 370 keys with a capex of ₹750 crore. Besides that, we have the ROFO pipeline of 1,114 keys with a capex of about ₹1,200 crore. We are also moving on to the acquisition mode of Soho House India,” he added.
The expected acquisition of Soho House India will help the company’s expansion into the membership-led hospitality segment.
Batra added that with overall growth in India’s hospitality industry, Minor Hotels’ Anantara brand has approached the company for possible collaboration in the Indian market. Currently, the company has a partnership with them for a hotel property in the Maldives.
“A lot of infrastructure movement is boosting the hospitality industry, and with connectivity getting better, there is a lot of potential in Tier-II and -III cities. We are looking forward to the Navi Mumbai airport to support Pune’s growth,” he noted.
 "Ventive Hospitality eyes expansion into more leisure destinations in India")
