Lankalia (Pvt) Ltd, a newly formed, BOI approved company, has invested Rs. 1 billion to buy an 80% stake of Peacock Beach Hotel, Hambantota.
Chairman, Lankalia, Dhakshitha Bogollagama said that they will invest around Rs. 250 million more to refurbish the property. “We will install solar energy in most of the parts of the hotel and also upgrade rooms, conference facilities and many other infrastructures.”
He said that they decided to invest in Peacock Beach Hotel Hambantota as it is the second largest hotel in the area after the Shangri La Hotel. “With the tourism picking up and Mattala airport also having many Russian flights, we see tourism playing a major role in the Hambantota area.”
“Several cruise ships patronised the Hambantota harbour and many more are expected. We also observed that the star class room strength is limited in Hambantota while there is also a void in hosting large MICE events. This is why we decided to invest in the hotel,” he said.
Bogollagama said that the hotel also has a large land bank which can be used for further leisure development. He said that this is the fourth property (and the biggest) that they have bought and the biggest in the hotel segment and have lined up three more properties under this initiative.
“We have already invested over UDS 5 million and restarted four hotels that were shut down due to the pandemic and other financial issues,” said partner Lankalia, Andrew Lee, who is also director of Ambroasia Ltd of Singapore and majority stakeholder of Blue Diamonds Ltd.
He said that these hotels are mostly single-owner hotels that were in huge debt and we stepped in and bailed them out providing them credit. “This would be at a far lower rate than the present market interest rate.”
A spokesman from the Guruge family which owned and operated the hotel said that they will keep a 20% stake in the hotel. “We will also open the Guruge Gems outlet mainly targeting the foreign clients that are expected to visit the hotel.”