The three-decade-old company manages around 125 hotels in India and operates under six brands, including The Fern and The Zinc, through a joint venture with CG Hospitality Global. Nepali billionaire Binod Chaudhary’s CG group owns a majority stake in Concept. The group is primarily known for its Wai Wai Noodles brand. This is expected to be Marriott International’s first direct investment in the country, and has earmarked around $15 million for the investment, those in the know told Mint. The company has been valued at $100 million.
At least five people confirmed the development to Mint. “This investment should be complete in the next month or so and will mark a shift in the American hospitality company’s strategy here. It is looking to scale its operations here, and the development could be a key indicator of how international hotel giants are adapting their strategies in response to India’s dynamic hospitality sector,” said a highly-placed executive in the hospitality industry, familiar with the situation.
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Emails sent to Marriott International remained unanswered till the time of press.
Rahul Chaudhary, managing director and CEO of CG Corp Global, said on email the company could not comment on the development at the moment.
Growing room count, expanding footprint
Marriott has been clear about its intent to scale and grow its India business. In the next 3-5 years, it expects to go to 50,000 rooms from its current nearly 30,000 rooms in India and operate 250-300 hotels. The company’s president for Asia Pacific (excluding China), Rajeev Menon, told Mint the company is expecting to scale their operations and that the hotels it runs clocked a gross revenue of ₹10,000 crore in the previous calendar year, 2024.
In 2024, the company signed about 42 new hotels in South Asia, including India, which will account for 7,000 new rooms and are in various stages of development. It currently has around 170 hotels in South Asia, of which 157 are in India, including some ITC Hotels’ luxury properties that it lists under its marketing and loyalty points portfolio, Bonvoy.
According to a recent industry report in October 2024 by hospitality consultancy Hotelivate, Marriott is India’s largest hotel company in terms of the number of rooms.
Concept primarily runs the hotel brand The Fern, an upscale hotel brand. Upscale hotels typically fall under the 4-star or 5-star category and have premium services and amenities. Concept also has an experiential brand, Zinc and an economy brand, Beacon, among others.
The company was founded in 1996 by Param Kannampilly, Kamat group chairman and managing director Vithal Kamat, and Ramesh Sanbag as a hotel management company focused on environmentally sensitive operations. By 2009, Kamat group, which owned 60% of the company, exited, and much later, around 2015, CG Corp took a majority stake in the business for around ₹50 crore.
Growing with brands
Concept has grown steadily and now manages its 125 hotels across about 90 locations in India under six brands, including The Fern and The Zinc. The company is a part of CG Hospitality, the hospitality arm of CG Corp Global, the Nepalese conglomerate.
Additionally, CG Hospitality also owns a separate portfolio of hotels. It has invested in properties like Taj Exotica Resort & Spa and Taj Coral Reef in the Maldives in partnership with Tata group’s IHCL, has since expanded its portfolio to include 11 properties across five countries, such as Taj Safaris in India and Nepal and Taj JLT in Dubai. The company also has joint ventures with brands like Jetwing Hotels in Sri Lanka and Radisson in New York City. It also owns hotels and operates brands in the Philippines.
“Marriott’s foray into direct investments in hotels here is a noteworthy development. Maybe other international companies could follow too, for quick scale. This shift in strategy is interesting because, in this market, competition is intensifying, and demand for upscale and mid-market hotels is on the rise,” a leading industry executive with insight into the development noted.
Two hotel management companies have invested in India so far.
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Interestingly, only two international hotel management companies have invested in hotels in India, making them notable as such companies typically do not make direct investments due to their focus on managing rather than owning properties.
Hyatt Hotels, for example, holds a stake in the country through Juniper Hotels, which went public last year and operates several Hyatt properties in cities like Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bareilly, and Delhi. Both Hyatt and Juniper receive backing from the Pritzker family, founders of the Hyatt brand. Since 2009, Juniper Hotels has been integrated into Hyatt’s broader business.
The second company, InterGlobe Hotels, is a joint venture between French hospitality giant Accor and InterGlobe Enterprises (IGE). Established in 2004, the venture focuses on budget hotels in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh, leveraging the large traveller base from IndiGo, a budget airline.
Accor and IGE invested in a 60:40 ratio for real estate and 70:30 for operations, marking Accor as one of the two international hotel management companies to invest directly in India.
