Skip to main content

Sheraton to get CATIC land in Colombo

Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, the largest Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide brand, will build a hotel in Colombo on land originally offered to a Chinese firm, the Deputy Economic Development Minister said on Sunday.

Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena said the government has completed negotiations with Sheraton to allocate the land, earlier offered to China National Aero Technology Import and Export Corporation (CATIC).

“The negotiations with Sheraton are successfully over and we have agreed to give (the) CATIC land,” he told Reuters.

However, he declined to comment on the amount of the investment or extent of land the government had agreed to offer Sheraton under a 99-year lease.

Last month, Sri Lanka annulled a $500 million investment deal with CATIC after it refused to sell the beach front land outright to the state-run Chinese conglomerate as agreed earlier.

The CATIC deal was among the largest foreign investments since the end of the war in 2009, and analysts say its cancellation has created concerns among potential investors.

Officially, Rajapaksa questioned why the land for the hotel on the Galle Face seafront grounds was being sold instead of given on a long-term lease. CATIC balked at the change in terms, having already paid $54.5 million.

The government says it is negotiating to give CATIC another property, and is in talks to lease the land in front of Galle Face Green it offered earlier to another party, which it declined to name, to build a hotel.

However, the government has not changed the terms of a similar $500 million hotel, shopping and apartment project with Shangri-La Asia Ltd , which paid $125 million to buy 10 acres next to the 6 acres CATIC wanted. - Reuters

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ukrainians injured as police dismantle Kiev 'tent city'

At least 10 demonstrators have been injured in clashes with Ukrainian police and another 100 detained in the capital Kiev after authorities began dismantling a makeshift "tent city" protesting against corruption. The tent city was set up in October by supporters of Mikheil Saakashvili, a former president of Georgia who has become an opposition politician in Ukraine. Saakashvili, a critic of corruption in Ukraine, was deported to Poland in February. He said he was "kidnapped" by Ukrainian authorities and removed from the country against his will. Andriy Kryshchneko, police chief of police, said at the camp on Saturday that "two court decisions" allowed authorities to search and dismantle the camp. Police said that explosives and other weapons were found at the scene

ASSIGNING OF PREFERENTIAL NUMBERS FOR LG POLLS COMPLETED

The Election Secretariat announced that assigning preferential numbers for candidates of the Local Government election to be held for 67 bodies has been completed. Preparations are currently underway to hold the polls under the 2010 electoral register, Additional Elections Commissioner W.P. Sumanasiri said. The electoral register of the year 2010 is scheduled to be certified on June 31.

In abrupt turnaround, Olympus admits it hid losses

Japan's Olympus admitted on Tuesday it hid losses on securities investments dating back two decades, bowing to weeks of pressure to explain a series of baffling transactions that have put the future of the firm in doubt. The revelations by the 92-year-old company appear to vindicate ex-CEO Michael Woodford, who has staged a campaign since being sacked on October 14 to force the firm to come clean on nearly $1.5 billion in questionable payments. Olympus President Shuichi Takayama blamed Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, who quit as president and chairman on October 26, Vice-President Hisashi Mori and internal auditor Hideo Yamada for the cover-up, saying he would consider criminal complaints against them. The admission after weeks of denials shocked investors, sending shares in the endoscope and camera maker skidding almost 30 percent and prompting the biggest non-Japanese shareholder to demand the replacement of the entire board. "Ignorance is no defense," said Jo...