Aitken Spence Buys Ramada Resort, Kalutara, Sri Lanka

22nd March 2010, www.lankabusinessonline.lk

Sri Lanka's Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings has acquired 100 percent of Ramada Resorts, a beach resort formerly known as Golden Sun Resorts, for 350 million rupees, a stock exchange filing said.

The filing said the shareholders of Golden Sun Resort in Kalutara on the west coast had given the nod to go ahead with deal.

Ramada Resorts, built on a five-acre land, was managed by Aitken Spence Hotels before the takeover.

The hotel has 64 standard rooms and 30 cabanas, three restaurants and two bars, an Aitken Spence Hotels spokeswoman said.

Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings is one of the largest leisure groups in Sri Lanka.

Before the takeover of Golden Sun, the group had seven hotels under the Aitken Spence Hotels and Resorts brand and another three resorts under its luxury brand, Heritance.

Aitken Spence also owns or manages five hotels in India, six hotels in the Maldives Islands and five hotels in the Gulf sultanate of Oman.

The firm plans a rights issue to raise 2.5 billion rupees to expand in Sri Lanka and overseas.