ITC to invest Rs 25,000 cr in 5 yrs - Business Standard
September 15, 2012
ITC Ltd has launched its super premium luxury hotel, ITC Grand Chola, here. The hotel, which the company claims as the world's largest LEED Platinum rated, has come up with an investment of around Rs 1,200 crore.
Speaking to reporters, ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar said "We have a target to invest around Rs 25,000 crore in the next five years, in total. Whichever segment executes projects faster could get more money and the hospitality segment is executing projects well."
ITC recently acquired a five-acre land in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to set up a hotel with an investment of around Rs 500 crore. It also has plans to set up hotels in other neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bangladesh, he added.
On the current market conditions for the luxury hotel segment, he said the source markets were not in good condition. "We are building hotels for the next 30-40 years and not looking at the market conditions of next three or four years," he said.
The company is coming up with its second hotel in Kolkata and is also setting up facilities in Ahmedabad, Amritsar and Bhubaneswar. Almost two years ago, the company announced it would invest around $2 billion in the hospitality industry. So far, it has invested 25-30 per cent.
The company is also looking at adding 5,000 rooms to the existing 8,000.
ITC expects an investment of Rs 1.5-1.8 crore for setting up a luxury room and Rs 60-70 lakh for a room in a four-star facility, said Nakul Anand, who heads the company's hospitality business. However, officials did not reveal the investment for setting up the proposed 5,000 rooms.
Deveshwar said majority of the investment would be from internal accruals, while a portion of it would come from borrowings.
ITC Grand Chola has come up on around 1.5 million sft and has around 600 luxurious rooms and suites including 78 serviced apartments. The hotel would also explore Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing and Exhibitions (MICE) opportunities as a major vertical. It has a 100,000 sft of banqueting and convention space and a 30,000 sft of pillar-less ballroom. The facility was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
Revenues from FMCG
ITC Ltd is looking at increasing its revenues from the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment from current Rs 5,500 crore to Rs 15,000 crore in the next five to seven years, said Deveshwar.
