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ITC may tie up with Starwood to enter SL mkt

ITC Hotels has acquired land in the Sri Lankan capital city to make its foreign foray.

Hotel may be branded as ITC Luxury Collection

ITC Hotels has acquired land in the Sri Lankan capital city to make its foreign foray. The homegrown hospitality player is likely to make its foreign debut with international hospitality biggie Starwood Hotels, with which it has a franchise tie-up for India. The hotel is likely to be branded as ITC ?Luxury Collection? Hotel. ?We know what ITC?s plans are. But we will leave it to ITC to announce them. We have three properties under development in Sri Lanka. And we see a potential ?Luxury Collection? hotel with ITC,? vice-chairman and CFO of Starwood Vasant Prabhu told FE. He also said that the ITC Hotel in Sri Lanka will not be a Sheraton as few reports claim.

Regarding a latest development pertaining to this property, in an official email, the ITC spokesperson said, ?ITC, with a market capitalisation of over $35 billion and a turnover of around $7 billion with business interests spanning consumer goods, hotels, paper and packaging, agri-business and information technology, has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary ? WelcomHotels Lanka Private (WLPL) ? in Sri Lanka. WLPL has acquired land at Galle Face in Colombo on a 99-year lease from the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka with an intention to set up a mixed use project, including a luxury hotel. The exact nature of the project will be decided on more detailed evaluation in the course of time.? The company did not give investment details of the project.

Starwood has a marketing franchise tie-up with ITC Hotels for more than 30 years. While earlier it was for its Sheraton brand, in 2007 it became an exclusive tie-up for Starwood’s premium brand ‘Luxury Collection’. ITC properties that were then brought under the brand umbrella of Luxury Collection were ITC Maurya in Delhi, ITC Maratha in Mumbai, ITC Sonar Bangla in Kolkata, ITC Grand Central in Mumbai, ITC Windsor in Bengaluru, ITC Kakatiya in Hyderabad and ITC Mughal in Agra. ITC will soon be opening ITC Grand Chola in Chennai which too will be a ?Luxury Collection? hotel. Starwood’s other brands include St Regis, Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien, W Hotels, Aloft, Four Points and Element.

While homegrown hotel players Oberoi Hotels and Resorts and Taj Group have their presence abroad, the Sri Lanka property will be ITC Hotels first foreign property.

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First published on: 16-05-2012 at 00:50 IST
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