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UB Group to open business centre in Dubai

Non-resident Indian businessman Vijay Mallya's UB Group is moving into a new activity by setting up a modern business centre in Dubai to cater to the needs of business travellers.

"Many business travellers to Dubai told us they needed such a facility. We had the infrastructure available and felt we could offer them a world class business centre," Ravi Nedungadi, UB Group's executive vice-president (finance), said.

The centre is being set up in space that became available in the group's Dubai office after it sold off its interest in Berger Paints in this region.

"We had spent more than one million dollars on furnishing the office and felt we could use it best by setting up such a business centre," Nedungadi said.

According to him, many business travellers to Dubai ended up meeting principals or clients in lobbies of hotels and other such places because they had no offices in the city.

The problems were compounded for businessmen who had to deal with companies in the Jebel Ali Free Zone, located about 45 kilometres outside the city, he said.

Another category of business travellers who faced such problems were those who came in to attend the scores of trade fairs held every year in Dubai.

Nedungadi said such visitors to Dubai could hire a fully operational office in the UB Business Centre on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

Customers would have a choice of executive offices of different sizes, he said.

They also had access to a post box, telephones, and fax facilities, conference rooms, message taking facilities, pantry services, and collection and distribution of incoming mail and faxes, he said.

Nedungadi felt the facility would attract clients from all over the world, including India, given the growing importance of Dubai as a centre of economic activities in the Gulf region.

"For instance, more and more businessmen from India are now travelling to Dubai," he said.

The UB Group executive vice-president said the centre would also offer a range of other services for an extra charge. "We had done a market survey and there was a real felt need for such a facility. We are targeting only the business traveller," he said.

He said the centre had already tied up arrangements with some Dubai hotels for handling spillovers from their own business centres during the busy season.

In the long run, the centre also plans to offer facilities for companies wishing to organise training programmes for employees and clients, he said.

Nedungadi said the group had decided to sell its stake in Berger because it wanted to focus on its core business as a leading distiller and brewer.

He said the proceeds of the sale had been reinvested in the group's brewery business in South Africa and the United States.

He said a lot of investments were also being made in its spirits business in India, including modernisation of bottling plants and establishment of new ones.

The company was also moving into the "lifestyle business," considering complimentary to the business spirits, the executive added.

As part of this effort, it is planning several beach and wildlife resorts and conference facilities in places such as South Africa and the Maldives, he said.

In Bangalore, where it is planning to develop real estate, the UB Group is looking at a major hotel project. "We might go into a five- or seven-star deluxe hotel project at a prime site," Nedungadi added.