Radisson Hotel Group and New Delhi-based MBD Group have signed an agreement to open as many as 50 co-branded hotels in India in the next 10 years, according to India’s The Economic Times.
The long-term partnership is a master franchise agreement that will focus on two Radisson brands — the upper-upscale Radisson Red and the soft brand Radisson Collection.
MBD will manage the entire portfolio and own 20% of the hotels. The remaining 80% will be franchised, with MBD as manager.
The partners have worked together before on the debuts of two Radisson Blu MBD hotels — one 131-room hotel that opened in 2002 in Noida (Uttar Pradesh state), and one 96-room hotel that opened in 2012 in Ludhiana (Punjab), according to CoStar data.
Mumbai-based real estate investment trust Nexus Select Trust acquired the Ludhiana hotel — a franchised property — from MBD in 2025 for approximately $63 million.
Amsterdam-based Radisson has plans to increase its hotel count in India from its current tally of 139 open hotels plus 219 in the pipeline, to 500 by 2030.
MBD’s joint managing director Sonica Malhotra told the The Economic Times that the total valuation of the 50 managed assets included in the partnership is approximately 100 billion Indian rupees ($1.1 billion).
Eighty percent of the planned properties will be branded Radisson Red and sites have already been acquired for the first hotels, in Bengaluru and Lake Pichola (Udaipur).
Other sites earmarked are in Ranthambore, the famous national park in Rajasthan, and at the new Navi Mumbai International Airport, which started commercial flight operations on Christmas Day 2025.
MBD, a conglomerate, has interests in educational technology, paper manufacturing, information and communication technology, real estate and shopping mall development and management, as well as hospitality.
In the hotel industry, it also has a joint venture with Chinese-owned H World International to operate H World’s brand Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts in India under the company MBD Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts. That partnership began in June 2016.
MBD also owns and operates budget brand MBD Express Hotels & Resorts, which it founded in 2018 and which has a handful of properties in India.