LONDON— The Groucho Club here is reportedly planning to open a chain of fashionable boutique hotels, according to recent reports, but has not yet commented on whether the reports are true. New owners, PR guru Matthew Freud, banker Robert Hambro and Joel Cadbury of the chocolate dynasty are rumored to have been asking hotel agents to find properties for a chain of small hotels. The hotels, which would be branded with the same name as the Soho club, are expected to be outside London. The trio of owners are currently in talks with Whitbread to acquire the Curzons health and fitness club chain for about £12 million, or US$17 million. The Groucho Club was bought by the three new owners earlier this year for £12 million, or US$17 million.
