Kandy Hotels, Sino Lanka to set up ‘OZO Kandy’
Kandy Hotels Company PLC and Sino Lanka Hotel Holdings (Pvt) Ltd. have teamed up to set up a new hotel ‘OZO Kandy’, consisting of 120 rooms using part of the property behind Hotel Suisse, Kandy with a joint 50:50 investment of Rs.1.3 billion, its Chairman stated.
Accordingly, the ground breaking ceremony of the hotel will take place on August 10, 2012 under the patronage of Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Central Province Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake.
Further plans are also underway for the restoration and development of Queen’s Hotel, Sanjeev Gardiner, Chairman, Kandy Hotels added.
“We therefore expect to create direct employment for more skilled employees after the projects are completed,” he said.
Sino Lanka Hotels in collaboration with the Thailand-based hotel management company, ONYX Hospitality Group recently celebrated the beginning of the construction of their 150-room OZO Hotel Colombo.
ONYX Hospitality Group signed a man- agement agreement with Sino Lanka Hotel Holdings for the development of several hotel projects in Sri Lanka located on Marine Drive in Colombo 4. OZO hotel will provide three-star class hotel accommodations for leisure travellers.
Sino Lanka Hotel Holdings is a joint venture investment company established by investors, Bob Kundanmal and Stefan Furkhan together with Singaporean investors to develop hotels in Sri Lanka.
The company so far has acquired six sites in Colombo, Galle, Kandy, Seenimodera, Chilaw and an island in Beruwala for the purpose of developing hotels and resorts.
The investment for all six projects is around US$ 100 million.
For the year ended March 31, 2012, Kandy Hotels posted a net profit of Rs.83.5 million as against Rs.48.5 million during the previous year, financials of the company revealed.
The increase in profitability was largely attributable to the steep rise in revenue of the hotel from Rs.287.5 million during 2011 to Rs.396.3 million during the year under review.
As at March 31, 2012 the largest shareholder of Kandy Hotels was Ceylon Hotels Corporation PLC, with a stake of 76.54 percent in the company, while the second largest was Ceylon Hotels Holdings (Pvt) Ltd., with a holding of 9.77 percent.