Shaza plans 30 hotels in 10 years

The first hotel is set to open in Dubai within the next two years, in what will be an eight to 10-strong five-star hotel chain across the Middle East in the next three years. "A new build is being finalised and a joint announcement will be made in a few days," said Hartley.

The 220-room hotel to be built on Shaikh Zayed Road, past the Kempinsky Hotel, will be managed by Shaza and financed by a third party, he told Khaleej Times. He also said: "Dubai will most probably be the first (hotel) but Marrakech will probably not be far behind."

The hotel group is also launching projects in Doha, Muscat, Cairo, Jeddah, Bahrain, and Marrakech.

A "top-end" five-star hotel will be opened in Bahrain Bay and will be an owner-operator venture. In Cairo, Shaza has bought a plot of land on the Nile "in a very central location" on which it will build a 500-room hotel as part of a mixed-used development. The total deployment is projected to be $160 million.

In Marrakech, Shaza is in the final stages of buying a hotel and is carrying out due diligence. The deal should be finalised by the end of the month, he said. The hotel will be gutted and renovated to Shaza's own specifications and should reopen in about two years. Shaza is also close to finalising a land purchase in Jeddah.

There are also opportunities for the group in Mecca, Medina, Riyadh and Kuwait, said Hartley, as well as "in Kuala Lumpur, Istanbul, and Cogna in Turkey."

Shaza Hotels will be a mix of owner-operator hotels, as in Cairo, Bahrain, Jeddah and Marrakech, and pure management contracts, as is the case in Dubai, Doha and Muscat. Finance for Shaza's hotel development will be provided by its sharia-compliant equity fund, which was recently closed at $260 million, and debt finance. "The fund will be 50 per cent geared, bringing the total development finance available to $500-$600 million," said Hartley.