NRI businessman to invest Rs 70 crore in hospitality sector in Kerala

KOCHI: A UAE-based NRI ship builder, realty and telecom retail player has finalised plans to enter the hospitality sector in Kerala by setting up a chain of hotels under the brand name, Springstay.

Two hotel projects of the company are in the advanced stage of completion at Kakkanad, the IT valley of the state. Speaking to ET, Sayyed Hamid, managing director of Western Marine Service and Techlink Systems in UAE said the company would invest Rs 70 crore for the two 4 star properties coming up at Kakkanad.

The group is looking at two more hotel projects in the state in the next two years. The projects are expected to come up at Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. The total investment that the group has committed in Kerala in the hospitality sector is around Rs 150 crore.

Sayyed Hamid also heads one of the largest distribution network for mobilephones in Kerala with a separate retail chain called ivolv for exclusive sales of iphones.The company is a leading player in the telecom market of UAE also.

The Rs 150 crore flagship multi-brand mobile phone retail company, Fone 4 Communications India Pvt. Ltd is looking at its new projects in the hospitality sector to increase the topline to Rs 500 crore by 2020 in Kerala.

"Our projects at Kakkanad consists of a 40 room boutique hotel and a 90 room apartment hotel", he said. The apartment hotel will have an entire floor reserved for women. "This floor with 13 rooms would be branded as the Pink Floor", he said.

The company is planning to open the boutique hotel project in 2017 itself. The apartment hotel project would be opened in 2018.

Kakkanad, Kerala's IT valley, has been luring major players in the hospitality sector. The Infopark, the Smartcity, the Cochin SEZ and many other private IT parks make Kakkanad a major business hub of the state. The new airport-seaport road connects the town with the airport also.

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