Business
ITC has signed an agreement with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka to build a luxury hotel in Colombo.
Updated : Mar 18, 2018, 05:34 AM IST
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ITC has signed an agreement with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka to build a luxury hotel in Colombo. The mixed development Lanka project will mark the diversified conglomerate’s maiden foray outside India, an ITC official told DNA.
Till now, ITC’s hotel properties, both owned and managed, were all located in India.
The Lanka deal, signed on May 4, coincides with ITC’s conversion of WelcomHotels Lanka into a wholly owned subsidiary.
The luxury hotel is coming up at a beach-front location at Galle Face Green, a prominent promenade that stretches for half a kilometre along the coast in the heart of the capital’s business district.
There, ITC will compete with the usual suspects: neighbour Taj Samudra and the planned Shangri-La Hotel.
ITC has been looking for opportunities to invest in hotel properties outside India, and zeroed in on the Emerald Island last December. That’s when the Lankan government approved ITC’s plan to invest up to $300 million in a luxury hotel. For the project, Sri Lanka allotted ITC a five-acre plot on a 99-year lease. ITC is believed to have paid $73.5 million already for the lease rental. Incidentally, the site was earlier allotted to a Chinese company for a similar project. But it backed out.
ITC has been running some of its hotels under licensing and franchise arrangements for the Sheraton brand and the Luxury Collection for the Starwood Group.
The upcoming Colombo property was supposed to carry the Sheraton brand, but the idea has been scrapped.
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