Hotels group IHG invests in India

 

Intercontinental Hotels Group is pouring $30m into a deal to develop its Holiday Inn Express brand in India.

It is taking a 24% stake in a venture with the hotel investment arm of asset manager Duet Group to develop 19 Holiday Inn Express hotels across India over the next five years.

The first site is expected to open by mid-2012 and its $30m investment will go towards building the hotels.

InterContinental (up 8p to 1267p) currently has 12 hotels in India but none under the Holiday Inn Express brand.

The new deal will add about 3,300 rooms to its development pipeline in the country which already consists of 10,000 rooms.

Duet Group founded in London in 2002 has $2.4bn of equity under management.