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• 06 / 02 / 2008

Havana, the company behind the Floridita bar chain, has formed a 50:50 joint venture with the Cuban government with plans to build hotels and golf resorts in the country. Sir Terence's architecture company Conran & Partners has been hired to design several sites. Esencia and the Cuban government have injected €20m up-front, while talks with commercial property funds to gather further investment are progressing. The balance will be financed by bank debt, said Esencia chairman Michael Phair. advertisement Esencia chief executive Andrew Macdonald, whose brother Ranald is a major shareholder in London's Boisedale restaurants, said that Esencia had four further sites identified across Cuba. He said the investment underlined the Cuban government's determination to attract foreign investment and target affluent visitors through golf. Last year Canadians represented Cuba's main tourist group, numbering more than 650,000 visitors. UK tourists were the second largest, at just over 200,000. Mr Macdonald said: "Cuba is similar in size to Britain, which has over 2,000 golf courses, so there is plenty of scope to develop facilities... there is only one golf course today." The first Esencia site, Hotel Victoria, will open next spring. D&D London, formerly known as Conran Holdings, is a shareholder in Havana Holdings. Havana previously worked in partnership with D&D to establish Floridita bars in London, Madrid and Dublin. Further sites in Leeds and Moscow are set to open in the next few months. (Telegraph.co.uk)