KARACHI, May 3: French hotelier Accor will build a dozen hotels in Pakistan in a deal with JS Group, a financial services firm, to fill a room supply gap in the mid-range market, reported Gulf News on Thursday.

Accor holds a 25 per cent equity stake in the joint venture that will create 2,400 hotel rooms, Accor Middle East Managing Director Christopher Landais told Gulf News.

"We will develop 12 Ibis hotels over a period of five years in key cities," he said.

The total development cost is estimated to be $156 million. Three sites have been identified in Islamabad, Faisalabad and Lahore. Ibis is a mid-price brand of the group, which also operates the five-star Sofitel hotels.

"We are also in talks to have Sofitel and Novotel hotels in Islamabad and Lahore," Landais said.

Accor opened the 118-room Mercure hotel at Karachi airport in April while one Sofitel is under construction in the city's Clifton area.

It is aggressively pushing its mid-range and economy hotels in the Middle East and South Asia.