Laugfs invests Rs. 500 m to takeover Waskaduwa resort firm

Thursday, 16 February 2012 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Laugfs Leisure Ltd., a fully own subsidiary of the Laugfs Gas Plc in its strive to become one of the dominant players in the hospitality industry has acquired Mag Consultants and Agents Pvt Ltd., (MCAPL) and its assets, comprising 1

5 acres of prime sea front beach property at Waskaduwa Kalutara with an investment of Rs. 500 million

Laugfs Chairman W.K.H Wegapitiya said that Laugfs Leisure is aggressively investing in the tourism sector.

“Our Strategic decision to enter into the re-emerging tourism industry sector in the post conflict environment, put into action with the commencement of the construction of the first star class 90 roomed luxury hotel in Chillaw which will be operational by December this year. With the acquisition of this new land, we intend to commence our second star class hotel at Waskaduwa shortly,” he said.

“We also intend to set up few other star class hotels in the pristine beaches of southern Sri-Lanka and will also focus on other attractive tourists destinations including that of northern and eastern provinces of the country under our medium to long term plans for the sector,” Wegapitiya added.

He said that this particular land in Waskaduwa was previously earmarked to build a five star luxury beach resort by a renowned international hotel chain, but did not materialize due to the security situation in the country prevalent at that time.

LAUGFS Leisure will soon embark on building a 200 room, state of the art luxury resort hotel in this newly acquired, 15 acre property at Waskaduwa.

Commenting on the acquisition of the MCAPL, a spokesman from LAUGFS indicated the move adopted by the company considered critical and important since this was the only stretch of land available, for a construction of a hotel of the magnitude planned in the most promising out of all coastal and other tourist destinations in the country.

“We see a great potential in Sri Lanka tourism development. Current industry figures indicate sustained growth for the third consecutive year in the post war era, with January 2012 showing an increase of 15% with 85,815 arrivals. Predictions for the current year indicate that arrivals will surpass 1 million and the revenue to be generated from the industry will reach $ 1 billion. Therefore we have had no hesitation about entry and ability to grow in a booming industry,” the MCAPL spokesman said.