Soho House, the private members’ club business, will open its first venue in Asia early next year, after securing a site in Mumbai.
According to The Times, the business, in which Richard Caring owns 80% and founder Nick Jones 20%, has a acquired a beach house in the upscale suburb of Juhu, known as Mumbai’s movie district.
A spokesperson for the group, which currently operates nine sites, including five in the UK, planned to open a “members’ club and hotel” in Mumbai in the coming months.
Rumours late last year suggested the business, which was founded in London in 1995, had been placed on the market, with a price tag of around £300m, after receiving a number of private equity approaches.
However, reports earlier this year said that it had been taken off the
market after its two shareholders chose not to sell the company for another year.
A five-year agreement between the two men expires in 2013, after which one can buy the other out, depending on financial performance. Caring has said there could one day be as many as 80 Soho Houses around the world, all modelled on the London original. New sites are also planned in Singapore and Brazil.
