Express expansion

The Indian Hotels Company Limited, which owns the Taj chain of hotels worldwide and is a part of the Tata Group, has bought a strategic 10 percent stake in highend hospitality major Orient-Express Hotels for $ 211.28 million from the open market. "Indian Hotels boards the Orient Express,” stated The Economic Times, September 18, 2007 in a front page report. Orient-Express Hotels "owns, part owns and manages 35 hotels in 25 countries. It also runs cruises and luxury trains, the most famous being the Venice Simplon Orient Express, the modern day avatar of the luxury train,” the paper added. (The train entered the realms of legend following the worldwide popularity of Agatha Christie’s murder mystery Murder on the Orient Express.)

Indian Hotels, with Ratan Tata as chairman, has Keki B. Dadiseth, Noshir A. Soonawala and Shapoor P. Mistry among its board of directors. The late Jamshed Bhabha was a longtime director till his demise on May 30, 2007. The market was abuzz with rumors that the Tatas were interested in more than just a 10 percent stake, but plans for an alliance or tieup had not received an initial reception from Orient-Express Hotels, whose shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In April 2007, the Taj Group had acquired the Campton Place hotel in San Francisco and had earlier in the year purchased the Ritz Carlton in Boston, renaming it the Taj Boston. Well established in the domestic and international market at different price levels from Smart Basic Hotels (budget hotels under the Ginger brand) to the business, leisure and luxury segments, the Group has recently forayed into the wildlife safari lodges business (a joint venture with South African companies) with the opening of highend lodges in Bandhavgarh and Pench (well-known tiger reserves) and two more coming up in the Panna and Kanha sanctuaries.