Adaaran Group celebrates World Travel Award

Adaaran group has held an event on Saturday evening to celebrate the winning of “Indian Ocean’s Leading Water Villa Group” award given by the World Travel Awards.

In addition to this, the Adaaran Prestige Water Villas at Meedhupparu won an award as “The Maldives Leading Water Villas” and this would be the second year in a row that this particular award has been conferred to Meedhupparu.

Speaking at the ceremony Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Dr Ahmed Ali Sawad, who was the chief guest, said that Maldives was one of the most favored and reputed brand in world tourism. Minister Sawad thanked and congratulated the efforts made by Adaarana group to maintain that image at an international level.

Also present at the ceremony was the chairman of the group, Harry S. Jayavarudhan, who said that it was a great honor to the Group as one of its resorts received the same award for two consecutive years.

Chethiya Perera, the CEO of Adaaran Resorts, stated that he believed the winning of the two awards was because of the encouragement given by the management of the company and the commitment and dedication of the staff. He also thanked the Maldivian government for their efforts in marketing Maldives as a prime destination.

Adaaran Prestige Resorts in the Maldives is managed by Aitkin Spence PLC and is a Sri Lankan hotel group. Adaaran Resorts operates over 600 rooms in the Maldives in four islands including three properties with water villas: Adaaran Prestige Water Villas, Meedhupparu; Adaaran Prestige Ocean Villas, Hudhuranfushi; and Adaaran Prestige Vadoo. Other Adaaran properties are Adaaran Ayurveda Village; Adaaran Select Meedhupparu; Adaaran Select Hudhuranfushi and Adaaran Club Rannalhi.

At the World Travel Awards held on 8 November 2009 in London, Maldives won a number of awards in the Indian Ocean category. This includes, besides the above awards, Indian Ocean’s Leading Airport- Malé International Airport , Maldives Indian Ocean’s Leading Destination – Maldives, Indian Ocean’s Leading Family Resort- Soneva Fushi Resort & Spa, Maldives, Indian Ocean’s Leading Green Resort – Banyan Tree Maldives at Vibbinfaru, Indian Ocean’s Leading Hotel- Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, Indian Ocean’s Leading Hotel Brand- Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Indian Ocean’s Leading Luxury Resort- Huvafen Fushi Maldives, Indian Ocean’s Leading Resort-Huvafen Fushi Maldives, Indian Ocean’s Leading Spa Resort- Soneva Fushi Resort & Spa, Maldives, Indian Ocean’s Leading Travel Agency-Inner Maldives Holidays, Indian Ocean’s Leading Villa Hideaway Palace, Island Hideaway at Dhonakulhi Spa Resort & Marina and Indian Ocean’s Leading Water Villa Group Adaaran Prestige Resorts.

World Travel Awards, considered as the Oscar award of travel industry, is voted by travel agents worldwide.

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Spence books tidy capital profit selling Maldivian resort

Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings has sold its first island resort in the Maldives set up in 1993 booking a fat capital profit in the quarter ended December 31, 2008. "The resort island did not belong to us and the operating rights (on the property) had three more years to run," Mr. Rajan Brito, Chairman/MD of the Aitken Spence group explained.

"We got a good offer for it and we decided to accept it as we would not have made that kind of profit had we run it on our own for three years." Brito said that a profit of Rs.218 million was booked on the transaction. As Aitken Spence owns 75% of Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings, Rs.163 million of this profit accrued to Aitken Spence. The Bathala resort was 95% owned by the Aitken Spence group with the balance 5% belonging to a Maldivian partner. Brito also said that a new Maldivian resort, Vadoo was due for completion at the end of March and will be commissioned in the forthcoming financial year.

He said that the development of the new resort was funded by borrowings and internally generated funds. The group borrows abroad at the London Inter Bank Offered Rate plus 3% which was now going up slightly, Brito said. "We haven’t gone to our shareholders for funds for the last several years," he said. Aitken Spence was an early entrant to the Maldivian tourism industry and operates several profitable resorts in the archipelago with earnings there taking up the lag of depressed tourism earnings in Sri Lanka. Spence has also gone into hotel management in India and the Middle East. The December quarter saw the Aitken Spence group profit growing 38.4% to Rs.473 million. The nine months ended December 31, 2008 saw the group boosting revenue 21.4% to Rs.19.35 billion and the attributable profit by 15.1% to Rs.1.27 billion.

With minority interest, the group’s after-tax profit was up 11.4% to Rs.1.87 billion translating to an earning per share of Rs.46.78, up 15.1% from Rs.40.63 earned a year earlier. Aitken Spence Hotels posted revenue growth of 9% to Rs.3.95 billion in the nine months under review and an attributable profit of Rs.264.6 million, more than double the Rs.131.2 million earned in the comparative period the previous year. The hotel subsidiary had an earning per share of Rs.6.59 during the nine-month period, more than double the Rs.3.12 earned in the comparative period the previous year, which analysts said partly reflected the capital profit earned on the sale of the Bathala resort.

island.lk

Sri Lankan hotel groups face Maldivian downturn

lankabusinessonline.com

Two of Sri Lanka's top conglomerates with resorts in the Maldives could see their earnings affected by a sudden downturn in tourist arrivals to the archipelago, a brokerage said in a research report.

C T Smith Stockbrokers said the Aitken Spence and John Keells groups could be hit as the global economic crisis has begun to reduce visitors to the Maldives as it impacts key Western tourist traffic generating markets It noted that there has been a sharp downturn in arrivals from the most important markets like Italy and Britain. "The effects of the global recession are seen making its impact on long-haul tourism to the Maldives, with arrivals dropping 4.8 percent to 61,531 in January 2009 from a year ago," C T Smith Stockbrokers said.
"Following the dip in arrivals in December 2008 this does not bode well for the industry as this is traditionally the peak season."

December arrivals in the Maldives were down four percent to 62,478 persons from a year ago.
The brokers said they expect tourist traffic to the Maldives to fall this year.
Tourist arrivals to the Maldives increased only 1.1 percent to 683,012 persons in 2008 from the year before. "Given the slowdown in arrivals witnessed in the second half of 2008, along with signs that the global recession is far from over and considering its likely impact on long haul tourism, we estimate Maldives’ tourist arrivals to fall by around 2-3 percent in 2009," the report said.

"Companies likely to get adversely affected by these developments would be Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings and John Keells Hotels, as both companies have significant hotel portfolios in the Maldives." The two groups diversified into the Maldives as part of a strategy to reduce their dependence on earnings from their Sri Lankan hotels. C T Smith Stockbrokers said the sharpest fall in visitors to the Maldives in January 2009 was from the European markets which dropped 9.6 percent to 47,283 persons compared with the year before.
Arrivals from the main markets such as Italy and UK dropped 22.5 percent to 10,441 persons and 19.6 percent to 7,751.

"Italy, UK and France combined represent nearly 40 percent of Maldives’ tourist arrivals, and as the current global recession is expected to carry on well into late 2009, it translates into a likely poor performance from these markets for the year." The report however said that on a more positive note, Asian arrivals had risen 20.3 percent from a year ago, with a 130 percent increase seen in Chinese arrivals to 5,912 persons. Both Aitken Spence and John Keells are looking at further diversifying their hotel business by investing in India and elsewhere in south Asia as well as in the Middle East. Sri Lanka's tourism industry has suffered for years from stagnant or falling arrivals because of the bad publicity generated by the ethnic war.
Low occupancy levels have meant that Aitken Spence Hotel Holdings and John Keells Hotels have seen their properties suffer losses from time to time. Now, however, industry analysts said Sri Lanka's tourism prospects have brightened with the military on the verge of crushing the Tamil Tiger separatist rebellion.

Sri Lanka Spence profits boosted by Maldives resort sale

lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka's Aitken Spence group said December 2008 quarter profits grew 38.4 percent to 473 million rupees, helped by a 163 million gain from the sale of a Maldivian resort.

Without the sale, consolidated profits fell to 310.6 million rupees from 342.3 million rupees. Before minority interest the sale brought profits of 218 million rupees.

Spence sold out of Bathala Island Resort, which it acquired in 1993, making it the first Sri Lankan run resort in the Maldives.

An official said the firm got a good price and the sale was concluded shortly before its lease expired. Aitken Spence runs seven resorts in the atolls. It also manages hotels in India and the Middle East.

Revenues of the group, which has operations in shipping, power, plantations and leisure increased 26.8 percent to 8.7 billion rupees.

The group said its Sri Lankan tourism business was hit by falling arrivals due to travel advisories, while in the Maldives high energy costs and refurbishment and new investment increased the interest burden.

In recent months, tourist traffic to Maldives has also slackened with the global tourism industry tapering off.

But Aitken Spence said its port management services, especially in South Africa as well as its power projects had done well.

"In power generation we are expecting future growth in renewable energy and in overseas expansion opportunities," Aitken Spence managing director J M S Brito said in a statement.

Aitken Spence plantations were also hit by falling global commodity prices. Sri Lanka tea and rubber prices have fallen steeply in the last quarter, though tea prices have since recovered somewhat.

In the 9-months to December 2008, revenues grew 21.4 percent to 23.4 billion rupees while group net profits grew 15.1 percent to 1,266 million rupees.

Without the resort sale net profits were flat at 1,103 million rupees against 1,099 million rupees.