Arjun Oberoi (left), Oberoi Group chief planning officer, Vikram Oberoi (right), group chief operating officer, and Kapil Chopra, senior vice-president of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, in Gurgaon on Tuesday. A Telegraph picture

New Delhi, April 12: The Oberoi group, as part of its expansion plan, will operate four new properties at home and abroad by 2014, including two in Hyderabad.

The group will open a new hotel in Hyderabad next year with 320 rooms, followed by a 250-room property in Dubai. In 2013, the group will open another property in Hyderabad with 220 rooms. By 2014, it expects to operate an 84-room property at Marrakesh in Morocco, Oberoi Group chief planning officer and joint managing director Arjun Oberoi told reporters.

The hospitality firm is also likely to operate a 70-room resort in Oman, but no time frame has been fixed.

The group today opened Oberoi Gurgaon with 202 rooms under a management contract with Orbit Resorts, which owns the property. It has been built at a cost of Rs 400 crore.

Located near Delhi’s international airport, the hotel covers a huge area with serene reflection pools and landscaped gardens and offers the city’s first 24-hour spa, cigar lounge and private heated pools.

At present, the group is also setting up flight kitchens in Delhi and Mauritius.

On international expansion, Oberoi said, “We are very actively looking at Europe but nothing has been finalised.” He said the group was looking only at management contracts for properties there.

When asked if the group would look to diversify into lower categories of hotels, he said, “Luxury and premium categories are the group’s focus area and, as of now, there is no plan to expand to lower segments.”

The Oberoi Group operates 32 hotels and resorts as well as cruises under the Oberoi and Trident brands in India, Egypt, Mauritius, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. It is also engaged in flight catering.

The group, listed by the name of EIH Ltd (formerly East India Hotels), has recently raised about Rs 1,100 crore through a rights issue.

“A majority of it (proceeds from the rights issue), around Rs 900 crore, will be used to retire debt and some part will be utilised for setting up flight kitchens,” Arjun Oberoi said.

The rights issue of EIH closed last month. The company had issued five equity shares for every 11 held by the shareholders at a price of Rs 66 apiece. The record date for the rights offer was February 22 and the issue raised Rs 1,178.86 crore.

Oberoi said all the shareholders, including ITC, Reliance Industries and Analjit Singh, had subscribed to the issue and the shareholding pattern in EIH remained the same. Asked if the group would be looking to raise additional funds, he replied in the negative.

On reports of Vikram Oberoi, taking over as the group head, PRS Oberoi, chairman and CEO of EIH, said he had no plans to retire or step down.