Serendib Leisure ventures into boutique hotels and villas

From left: Malinga Arsakularatne - Managing Director of the Leisure, Travel and Aviation Group of Hemas Holdings PLC, Abbas Esufally – Chairman, Serendib Hotels PLC and Director of Hemas Holdings PLC, Pratheepan Karunagaran, Director – Frontier Capital Lanka (Pvt) Ltd and Imtiaz Esufally – Director, Serendib Hotels PLC and Hemas Holdings PLC

Serendib Hotels PLC, a unit of Hemas group, yesterday said it entered into a sales and purchase agreement with First Edge Investment Limited to acquire the controlling stake of three boutique villas in Sri Lanka’s Southern coast.

Accordingly, Serendib Hotels will acquire 445, 668 ordinary shares or 51.5 percent stake of Frontier Capital Lanka Pvt Ltd for Rs.309.5 million. “The investment would be made subject to agreed conditions precedent to be fulfilled by the seller and is due to be concluded shortly,” Serendib Hotels said in a stock exchange filing.

Forntier Capital together with its subsidiary companies own and operate a collection of boutique villas under the name ‘Lantern Beach Collection’ in Mirissa.

Serendib Hotels said subsequent to the investment, the boutique villas will be managed by its fully owned subsidiary Serendib Leisure Management Limited under a hotel management agreement to be entered into between the parties. According to Serendib Hotels there is a visibly increasing trend towards the emerging traveler exploring varying options of accommodation and this has prompted the group entering into the luxury villa space.

“We are excited to venture in to our very first villa project, as this is a significant milestone in Serendib Leisure’s quest to grow in the segment of Luxury Villas in Sri Lanka, enabling us to provide superior and diverse hospitality options to the discerning traveler,” Hemas Holdings’ newly created Leisure, Travel and Aviation Group Managing Director Malinga Arsakularatne said in a statement. 

Apart from Serendib Leisure, Serendib Hotels group has two listed hotel properties—Dolphin Hotels PLC and Hotel Sigiriya PLC as its subsidiaries.

The broup under the Serendib Leisure umbrella currently also manages Avani Bentota Resort & Spa, Avani Kalutara Resort, Club Hotel Dolphin and Hotel Sigiriya with a consolidated inventory of 413 keys.

Hemas Holdings controls over 53 percent of the issued shares of Serendib Hotels PLC.