[photopress:hotels_7_days_inn.jpg,full,alignright]Merrill Lynch (often called ‘The Thundering Herd’ and, sometimes, ‘We, the People’) and U.S. private equity firm Warburg Pincus have invested a total of $95 million in the Chinese budget hotel operator 7 Days Inn.
Chief Executive Zheng Nanyan said the company will use the additional capital from the investors to open new hotels. Last year, Warburg Pincus invested $10 million in 7 Days Inn.
The Chinese hotel chain, set up in 2005, has over 100 hotels in the country. It plans to increase its hotels to 150 by the end of this year and to 500 by 2010. To do that it plainly needs outside investment which it now has.
Source: MarketWatch