Taj looks to expand global footprint

Scouting across all continents, plans to create a holding company to run these assets better.

Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces, Asia's largest hospitality chain, is looking to set up luxury properties in Africa, West Asia, China and Southeast Asia.

Indian Hotels Company, which owns the Taj brand in addition to three others, has 16 properties spread across the US, South Africa, Sri Lanka, UAE, UK, Australia, Bhutan, Maldives and Malaysia, plus some more. This is in addition to 65 properties in India, with more in the pipeline.

Due to the growing significance of its international assets, the company is planning to create a holding company over the next two to three years to manage these, while the standalone company focuses on the Indian region.

The international hotels are currently managed by subsidiary companies of IHCL.

The company is in talks with companies in the Gulf region, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa and China for adding more properties. These would be through the management route (where the property is owned by the developer but managed by Taj), as well as through a franchise.

IHCL, which has been aggressive in acquisitions abroad in the past such as that of The Pierre (New York), Ritz Carlton (Boston) and The Campton Place (San Francisco) is keenly exploring opportunities in West Asia, including Egypt, for total buyouts.

The company is also looking at Indian Ocean countries, Europe, Asean and Australia.

Ajoy Misra, senior vice president, sales and marketing, IHCL, said: "In the Middle East, we have hotel properties in Qatar, Doha, in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Ras al-Khaimah. We are looking at projects in North Africa, specifically in Morocco. We have a project underway in Phuket, Thailand, we have two projects signed and underway in China - one in Beijing and other in Hainan. We are looking for other opportunities in China."

IHCL opened the doors of its newest overseas hotel in January, with the opening of a 176-room five-star hotel in Cape Town, South Africa's second most populous city. The company now wants to set up hotels in Johannesburg and Durban. The Cape Town property was inaugurated in time to cater to the 2010 football World Cup to be held in South Africa.

Although the company aims to have a substantial reach in the international market in due course, it will have to look at raising funds to complement its expansion plans. It had a consolidated net debt of around Rs 40 billion (Rs 4,000 crore), while the stand alone debt was Rs 23 billion (Rs 2,300 crore), as on March 31.

The company plans to open seven new properties this financial year, including the Taj Falaknuma in Hyderabad.