Friday 25 April 2014

Sri Lanka's Vallibel One to invest $300 mln hotel deal with casino

(Reuters) - Sri Lanka's Vallibel One will invest a $300 million in an integrated luxury tourist resort in the island nation's proposed exclusive gaming zone, the island nation's parliament documents showed on Thursday.

The 19 billion rupee ($145.47 million) diversified holdings firm is expected to raise $200 million from foreign investors and the rest locally for the project of 500 rooms, high-end shopping malls, high quality offices and associated services.

Officials from the state-run Board of Investment and ministry of investment promotion said company chairman Dhammika Perera owns three of the country's five casino licenses.

A new hotel project, Queensbury Leisure Ltd, has been looking to start a casino as well, they told Reuters.

The hotel will be located at D.R. Wijewardena Mawatha, an exclusive gaming zone in the commercial heart of the capital Colombo and near Australian gambling tycoon James Packer's proposed $400 million Crown Resorts group mixed-development project.

Amid strong protests by opposition and Buddhist religious leaders, President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling coalition approved the Queensbury Leisure project on Thursday in the parliament.

($1 = 130.6150 Sri Lanka rupees) 

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

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