http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2080285.cms
Taj set to buy Ritz-Carlton
[ 4 Oct, 2006 0000hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
 
 
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MUMBAI: India's largest hospitality chain — the Taj group of hotels, resorts and palaces — is set to clinch its second deal in US.

Indian Hotels Company, part of the tea-to-telecom giant Tata group, is buying the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Boston for $170 million.

RK Krishna Kumar, director of Tata Sons, said, "We are currently doing due diligence of the hotel."

The 400-room luxury hotel, a 79-year fixture in Boston's elegant Back Bay, is currently owned by Millennium Partners, which had bought the property for $122 million in 1999. Following the change in ownership, the Boston hotel's name would be changed.

The Taj group already operates and manages The Pierre in New York. Indian Hotels re-entered the US, the largest market for the Tata group, through Pierre in 2005.

The latest deal is part of the chain's strategy to expand its business globally. It recently acquired a 100-room property in Sydney, Australia.

Indian Hotels owns over 70 hotels, including some of the world's posh resting stops for the rich: the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai and St James Court in London.

The company is scouting for properties in high-growth regions like China, Europe and Americas. It has bought land to build a resort in Thailand and is investing $180 million to develop three Taj hotels in South Africa.