Royal Orchid to foray into service apartments

Royal Orchid Hotels Limited (ROH) is planning an entry into the sunrise real estate segment of service apartments across the country.

The Rs 85-crore Bangalore-based company has tied up with Ramada Inn hospitality group of US as their management partners in the country.

ROH chairman and managing director Chander Baljee told reporters on Thursday that the company would open a 72-unit property in Pune in a month's time and was also planning to open service apartment properties in the emerging industry and business centres in the country.

Baljee said the company had signed a management contract with Pune-based Vascon Engineers for the latter's service apartments property, Vascon Golden Suites, for a period of 20 years. The property comprises studio apartments and one bedroom units, he said. The company may also consider another service apartment property in Hinjawadi, he added.

Baljee said the spread of information technology business in the country led to the rise of many tier-II and tier-III cities as investment destinations.

ROH will look for opportunities to buy, lease or manage properties or a combination of these methods, to leap frog its business spread, Baljee said. The company is building a property in its hometown, Bangalore, and will partner with the real estate players elsewhere, he added.

Baljee said that the company had signed up with Ramada Inn to manage the latter's properties in Mumbai, Goa and Chennai.

"The Ramada Group is planning expansion in India and we will manage their properties as an additional line of business," Baljee said.

The company posted a turnover of Rs 87.5 crore in the first nine months of the financial year 2006-07, he said. This was higher than Rs 85 crore for the whole of 2005-06. The profits for the nine-month period this year was Rs 24.8 crore as against Rs 23 crore for the entire last year.