DELHI: French multinational hotel group AccorHotels, which has brands like Ibis, Mercure, Sofitel and Pullman in its portfolio, is bringing its luxury brand Raffles to India and the first Raffles hotel will come up in Udaipur, sources familiar with the development told ET.
The ultra luxury brand is currently present in Paris, Singapore and Istanbul. Besides Raffles, AccorHotels is also launching the second Fairmont hotel in India that will be located close to the Mumbai airport, reports The Economic Times.
AccorHotels currently has a Fairmont hotel in Jaipur and the new hotel in Mumbai will launch in association with the Shrem Group, sources said. AccorHotels did not respond to an email seeking comments till the time of going to press.
AccorHotels acquired brands like Fairmont and Raffles last year in a $2.7 billion deal with the signing of an agreement with Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) of Saudi Arabia, Oxford Properties and Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) for the acquisition of FRHI Holdings Fairmont’s parent, Raffles, and Swissotel.
AccorHotels had previously stated it paid for the acquisition by issuing 46.7 million new Accor shares and cash payment of $840 million. In an interview to ET in April this year, Gaurav Bhushan, global chief development officer for AccorHotels had said the company will expand its luxury offerings in emerging markets like India.
“The next big wave of growth for us is going to come from luxury and emerging markets. Luxury is an important component in these markets,” Bhushan had said. He had also mentioned that Accor was getting active enquiries for both Fairmont and Raffles in India. The company will also launch the Fairmont brand in the Caribbean region with a Fairmont St Lucia at Sunset Bay expected to be launched in 2019.
