Dubai: Nakheel Hotels, the hospitality arm of property developer Nakheel, will have more than 80 hotels in its portfolio, including about 30 easyHotels, in the Middle East and North Africa, an official said.
"We already have a portfolio of 30 hotels with 14,000 rooms in 18 countries in the luxury segment with an enterprise value worth $3 billion (Dh11 billion), and we plan to double this in the next five years," Joe Sita, chief executive of Nakheel Hotels, told Gulf News yesterday.
"About 40 per cent of these are under development while the rest are operational."
The company plans to roll out its portfolio in two segments - the luxury and the budget segment with easyhotels.com.
"In addition to these, we are planning to develop 25 to 30 easyHotels within the next five years on the budget segment."
New contract
The company is currently finalising a new hotel contract with MGM Mirage, in which its parent company Dubai World holds a stake.
MGM Mirage has already announced a new hotel in Dubai. "We are working with MGM to develop a number of hotels, which they will manage," Sita said.
"MGM will operate another hotel in Abu Dhabi, to be built by Mubadala."
The company plans to grow both organically and through acquisition.
"All our projects in Dubai will be developed by us while in the international markets we plan to expand through acquisition," he said.
Sita, however, ruled out the possibility of launching a Nakheel-branded hotel chain. "We will continue to invest and develop hotels as our core area in hotels is in investment, development and asset management," he said.
The company has recently acquired a 50 per cent stake in Mexican resort One&Only Palmilla in Los Cabos, valued at $315 million.
One&Only is a 172-room ultra-luxury ocean front resort managed by Kerzner International under the award-winning One&Only brand.
Nakheel Hotels was launched in November 2007 as the new name for Istithmar Hotels after Dubai World consolidated its hotel business under one banner to create a fully integrated hotel investment company.
Nakheel Hotels will continue to pursue its strategy of acquiring luxury hotels in key gateway cities and resorts across North America, Europe and Asia, along with investing in the budget hotels sector in key growth markets, he said.
"We are currently redeveloping the W Union Square and Hotel Washington," Sita said.
Projects currently include The Trump International Hotel & Tower, which is under development on The Palm Jumeirah, while the group has already acquired several luxury hotels in the US, including Mandarin Oriental, W Union Square and Hotel Washington. It also has significant equity investments in Kerzner and International Hotel Investments, and development projects for W hotels in Thailand.
QE2 Enterprises, which has acquired the QE2, is also part of Nakheel Hotels.
