Hilton International is adding a third resort to its properties in the Maldives, by managing a new, 4-star resort financed and owned by Sri Lanka’s Malwatte Hotels and Resort Ltd (MHRL), company officials said.
A company official at Malwatte Plantations, MHRL’s holding company, said the company has signed a MoU with Hilton International to manage the resort with 70 bungalows on Maanagalaa island which is a 30-minute sky-plane ride from Male International Airport. The formal agreement between the two parties will be signed in the next two weeks.
Malwatte Plantations owns tea and rubber plantations in Sri Lanka and recently branched into leisure with two properties - a mansion (boutique hotel) and the Factory Hotel Hakgala with plans to start a third hotel in Sri Lanka.
“We picked the Hilton as that brings us an instant clientele,” a company source said. Construction on the US$26 million project gets underway in September with the resort being ready for operations two years later – September 2013. The Hilton’s other two properties are the Conrad Hilton on Rangali island and the Hilton Maldives / Iru Fushi Resort & Spa.
MHRL will hold a 62% stake in the company while 10% will be offered to Male-based Trinus-CAE Holdings Ltd, which has a 25-year lease on this island, in lieu of the lease worth US$3.77 million. The balance 28% will be funded through a combination of private and public equity offered by MHRL.
Malwatte joins other Sri Lankan groups – Aitken Spence and John Keells -- in having properties in the Maldives. |
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