Thursday, September 1, 2011

Sri Lanka JKH in joint venture to build Rs2.90bn business hotel

Sep 01, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's John Keells Holdings (JKH) group plans to build a 25 storey, 240-room business hotel in Colombo with an investment of 2.90 billion rupees in a joint venture with Sanken Lanka.

JKH said in a statement the new hotel, to be built in 33 months, will be managed by group unit Keells Hotel Management Services.

JKH aims to have up to 1,000 business hotel rooms to cater to growing numbers of business travellers, deputy chaiman Ajit Gunewardene said.

"Based on our long term strategy, we believe that Colombo requires an efficient and modern business hotel offering ultra-comfort with efficient services at a competitive price for the business traveler," he said.

"This project would be just the start in taking our strategy forward while adding to and complementing our brand portfolio. Our goal in the medium term would be to develop a capacity of around 1,000 rooms in this segment."

Sanken Lanka will be the major shareholder in the project on Green Path in Colombo while John Keells Holdings will take a minority stake, the statement said.

Sanken Lanka will be the main contractor for the project which will be on a design and build basis with Design Team 3 of Singapore being the project architects.

The hotel will have restaurant capable of seating 160 people on the 24th floor with a roof top swimming pool, bar, open air lounge and gym facilities offering a panoramic view of the city, the statement said.

JKH will launch a new brand for the business hotel in six months.

Colombo currently has a room capacity of about 500 – 600 rooms in the 3-star and lower categories which are totally inadequate given the expected surge in demand in business related travel in the next 2 -3 years, the statement said.

"The opportunity to attract a larger part of this segment specially the incentive traffic and conferences space in the sub-continent is immense."

source - www.lbo.lk

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