Duet India Hotels Ltd (DIH), the private equity firm of UK-based Duet Group, has invested USD 12 million in a five-star upscale hotel project in Hyderabad. The project, which comprises 210 rooms, is being developed at Gachibowli suburb, close to the IT district of the city at a total investment of USD 26 million. The company will soon invest another USD 25 million in a hotel project in Bengaluru.

According to a report, Duet India Hotels, which is the investor and developer of the project, will infuse the remaining amount through debt. The company has already bought the land from L&T Phoenix Infoparks for the Hyderabad project. It is yet to finalise a hotel partner for the project.

The company has invested USD 47 million so far from its USD 166.5-million fund across five projects. Earlier, it invested in projects in Jaipur, Pune, Ahmedabad and Indore. The Jaipur project is already operational and is run by Sheraton Hotels & Resorts under the brand name, Four Points. The Pune project will be operational by September 2010 followed by Indore and Ahmedabad projects in January and March 2011, respectively.

The company has also completed due diligence for two more investments, one each in Lucknow and Nashik. Dilip Puri, CEO, Duet India Hotels said, “We have completed the due diligence for two other projects and will bring in equity in the next one month. These are smaller projects having equity of USD three million each for developing three-star hotels of 100 rooms in each. We are about to conclude a project at Whitefield in Bengaluru and will invest equity of around USD 25 million.”

By the end of this calendar year, the fund will complete investments of USD 78 million equity across eight projects. Duet India Hotels, which has raised the fund from foreign institutional investors, plans to raise more equity for the fund and go for an initial public offering in the next two years. “We plan to raise more equity for the same fund and would be looking to do an IPO in a year-and-a-half or two years,” Puri said.

Apart from DIH, Duet Group runs another fund in India called South Asian Real Estate, which has been investing in residential projects.

Source: http://www.travelbizmonitor.com

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