Govt. seeks investors for Colombo Hilton and Grand Hyatt

After a long wait, the Ministry of Public Enterprise on Friday invited proposals from potential investors for the Grand Hyatt Colombo, owned by Sri Lanka's biggest insurance and pension funds, along with the partly refurbished Colombo Hilton.

These two entities are to be divested by their majority owner, the government and cabinet approval was received by the Ministry to put out Request For Proposals ( RFPs) for the hotels. The call was published as an advertisement in national dailies. The Sri Lanka Insurance Corporation, Litro Gas and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) have invested Rs. 19 billion in the yet-to-be-opened Hyatt. In 2011, the Government debt at Hilton was said to be over Rs. 11 billion but it was written off.

Hilton Colombo’s revenue for the year ended December 2016 was Rs. 2.5 billion, according to the last available accounts. F& B revenue was much higher at Rs.1.3 billion compared to Rs. 1.1 billion in room revenue for the same period. Current liabilities were reported at Rs. 862,057 million compared to Rs. 678,582 million in the previous year.

The Ministry of Publ i c Enterprise Development which is now in the process of restructuring key State owned Enterprises ( SOE) was seeking Cabinet approval for some time to attract potential investors for the two state hotels, the officials said.

"When the part refurbishment at Colombo Hilton was completed there were many interested parties for that property and also Hyatt. So now we thought of issuing RFPs for both Hilton and Hyatt," an official told the Business Times.