Indian hotel chain Hotel Leelaventure has announced plans to open five new properties over the next five years, in addition to the two hotels scheduled to open by the end of 2012.
Hotel Leelaventure president Rajiv Kaul told PTI that the company hopes to have a portfolio of 14 hotels under its brand name by 2017.
Leelaventure currently operates seven properties in India, out of which it owns hotels in Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa, Udaipur and New Delhi and manages the recently launched Gurgaon property and Leela Kovalam.
In August 2011, the company sold the Kovalam property for Rs5,000m ($90m) to an non-resident Indian (NRI).
Leelaventure is all set to open two new properties, one each in Chennai and Jaipur, by December 2012, taking its portfolio to nine.
The proposed expansion of new properties is expected to come up in the eastern and western regions where the hotel chain does not have a presence.
The hotel chain has recently been struggling with poor profitability and a debt of nearly Rs43,000m ($771m).
Its lenders consortium, led by Indian Overseas Bank, Syndicate Bank and Bank of India, has referred it the Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR) cell seeking to recast Rs30,000m ($538m) of the loan amount.
Despite the promoters agreeing to invest fresh capital of Rs1,500m ($27m), the lenders are yet to approve the CDR scheme.
Source: Hotelmanagement-Network.com