IHG JV partner Duet to invest further in India

Duet India Hotels, which had previously entered into a 20-year joint venture with IHG to develop a portfolio of 19 Holiday Inn Express hotels in India, will reportedly now look to acquire an additional 10 hotels in the country by investing nearly $200 million.

IHG had paid $30 million into that partnership.

Naveen Jain, president of Duet India Hotels, told The Hindu, “We have already acquired nine properties. Six hotels are operational and three more hotels will start functioning in three years’ time. Besides, we are scouting for properties to set up 10 more hotels. So far, we have invested $300 million and are in the process of investing another $200 million."

India continues to be a focus for IHG, with Duet part of the strategy of growth. IHG CEO Richard Solomons had this to say back in 2014: "India's contribution [to IHG revenues] is very small, until now," Solomons said. "We have been in India since 1965. We have 19 hotels. We took a lot of hotels out. We have learned a lot and we have made a lot of mistakes. We don't want growth for the sake of growth. We want high-quality growth. We have 45 in the pipeline in the next few years and 150 in the next 10-15 years."