Royal Orchid to establish national presence

Bangalore, June 12 (UNI) The Royal Orchid Hotels Limited, one of the most recognised names in the hospitality industry in the city, will invest Rs 60 crore to establish its presence in other major cities in the country, its Chairman and Managing Director Chander Baljee announced today.

Talking to reporters here, he said the Group had grown significantly in the last one year and its expansion plans would help the it keep pace with the booming hospitality industry in the country.

Disclosing the Group's aggressive growth plans, he said the Group would increase its presence in Jaipur, Hyderabad and Mysore by the end of this year and build one hotel each in Pune, Hyderabad and New Delhi between 2007 and 2008. These additions would take company's total strength to 10 hotels.

The Group targetted business travellers and its clientele include corporates and MNCs like Intel, Texas, SAP labs, GE, Microsoft, Sasken, HP and Dell. The competitive positioning had resulted in higher occupancies among the other five star hotels in the city, he added.

Mr Baljee said the Group planned to have six hotels in the five-star category, 14 in four-star segment and 20 in budget category so that it would help position itself to establish a national presence and be ranked among the top five players in the Indian hospitality industry.

He said the Group, having five hotel properties in Bangalore, had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 23.48 crore for 2005-06 as against Rs 14.77 crore registered the corresponding period the previous year. It's turnover was Rs 85.97 crore during the year as against Rs 58.18 crore the previous year.

The Group would announce a maiden dividend of 50 per cent to its shareholders, he added.

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