TAJ GVK buys Chennai hotel for Rs 32 cr

TAJ GVK Hotels and Resorts Limited has acquired 100 per cent of Chennai-based Sri Tripurasundari Hotels Ltd (STHL) for Rs 32 crore and will plough in between Rs 80-100 crore to refurbish their property.

"Chennai is one of the cities with a lot of potential and is experiencing high growth. Every year we plan on expanding our operations to two different cities in the North, South and West," said G V Krishna Reddy, chairman and managing director of TAJGVK.

The hotel acquired from STHL was through a share purchase agreement and is located in the central business district of Chennai.

The hotel has around 212 guestroom bays, that will be scaled up to 5-star standards after which it will converted to less than 200 rooms. It is slated to be operational by early 2006.

"The demand for rooms in the Southern part of India is growing at 10 per cent every year, there is a need for at least a few more thousand rooms. We shall position the hotel appropriately after we get a handle of the situation around the time opening," said Ajoy K Mishra, senior VP-sales and marketing, The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL).

This is the second acquisition for TAJ GVK after the 152 room 5-star hotel it acquired at Chandigarh in 2002-03.

The total investment into that property is around Rs 70 crore, it is scheduled to be operational by the end of this fiscal.