Exit door

Calcutta, Sept. 26: EIH Ltd and Hilton International will part ways on March 31 next year.

EIH had entered into an alliance with Hilton in April 2004 for marketing and co-branding the Trident Hilton brand.

“We wished to develop the Trident brand independently. We could not do so and maintain the alliance with Hilton at the same time,” said EIH chairman P.R.S Oberoi.

Oberoi added that the outlook for the brand in the country was excellent and EIH would continue to expand it.

The Trident Hilton hotels in Gurgaon, Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Cochin will be rebranded Trident from April 1 next year. The Hilton Towers in Mumbai will also become Trident Towers.

“The Trident in Gurgaon has led the market from the day it opened. We are exploring opportunities for new Trident hotels in other cities,” Oberoi said.

In September last year, Hilton and the Gurgaon-based DLF group had entered into a joint venture to build a chain of hotels at an investment of around Rs 12,000 crore.

DLF, which was to have a 74 per cent holding in the venture, planned to build 25,000 rooms across all hospitality segments in five years.

EIH will increase its number of hotel rooms to 6,800 from 4,100 in five years at an investment of Rs 4,300 crore. EIH will invest Rs 1,000 crore and the rest will come through borrowings and from joint venture partners.

The company’s domestic projects will add around 1,300 rooms in five months, including the 440-room Trident Bandra Kurla property, a 350-room hotel near Bangalore International airport and a 250-room hotel in Hyderabad.

EIH is also looking at a Trident property in Calcutta.

The Trident properties will entail an investment of Rs 800 crore.

EIH has a 26 per cent holding in the Bangalore project while the rest is held by L&T. The company holds 16 per cent in the Hyderabad project.