March 23 (SeeNews) - Serbia's Delta Holding is negotiating the launch of an InterContinental hotel in Croatia's capital Zagreb with the InterContinental Hotel Group IHG, local media reported.
Although the original plan was to buy land and build a new hotel, Delta Holding has started talks for the purchase of an existing hotel which meets InterContinental's strict standards, news portal Poslovni.hr reported on Wednesday.
"We intend to bring InterContinental to Zagreb, as well as Crowne Plaza to Pristina and Skopje. We would invest the funds and IHG would manage the hotels", Poslovni.hr quoted Zivorad Vasic, Vice President of Delta Holding, as saying.
Delta Holding has already invested in Crowne Plaza Belgrade and InterContinental Ljubljana, using a similar business model, Vasic noted.
"This is a unique formula which has been implemented in two cities, and there is no reason why the new projects won't be as successful", he added.
The first InterContinental hotel in the former Yugoslavia opened in Zagreb in 1964 and operated until mid-1990's, when Croatian concern Agrokor's owner, Ivica Todoric, bought it and renamed it to Opera. In 2002, Todoric sold the hotel to businessman Andjelko Leko.