Prestige to Invest 10 Billion Rupees in Hotels Over Four Years

Prestige Estates Projects Ltd. (PEPL), an Indian real estate developer, plans to invest up to 10 billion rupees ($203 million) in building hotels in the next three to four years, Chairman Irfan Razack said

Prestige will invest 2 billion rupees to build a Hilton hotel in Bangalore, where the Indian company is based. It is also constructing a Marriott Hotel at its Prestige Golfshire project and building an Aloft Hotel, a brand owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. also in Bangalore

The company is building hotels in the southern Indian city, home to the Indian offices of Google Inc., Infosys Ltd. and Texas Instruments Inc. aiming to draw customers from the information technology industry, Razack said.

“Hotels are a long-term play, we won’t get returns immediately,” Razack said in a conference call with analysts today.

Prestige’s shares fell 4.1 percent to 91.8 rupees in Mumbai trading today. The benchmark Sensex index gained 0.5 percent

The company has also partnered with Oakwood Worldwide, a serviced apartment manager, to operate a 218-unit luxury service apartment in Bangalore.

Prestige reported a second-quarter profit of 262.8 million rupees yesterday on sales of 1.28 billion rupees. The developer raised 12 billion rupees in an initial share sale in October last year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Pooja Thakur in Mumbai at pthakur@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andreea Papuc at apapuc1@bloomberg.net