Hilton Colombo joins world Hilton chain

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

The government has found a better deal for Hilton Hotel in Colombo with the world Hilton Hotel chain Treasury Secretary T B Jayasundara said at a media briefing held at the Finance Ministry last week. The cabinet approval has been granted recently for this transaction .and the new agreement will be signed shortly.

The hotel will be restructured and according to the new agreement 11.75 percent of the turnover will go to Hilton whereas it was 35 percent in the earlier agreement. This will save more foreign exchange to the country. The government took over the hotel as the owners of the leading hotel had only paid two months of lease to the government since its inception.

The Hilton Hotel deal was signed by the Urban Development Authority (UDA) during the UNP regime in 1984.

Then six acres of land at Echelon Square, Colombo 1 where the Hilton Hotel stands today was leased to Cornel and Company Ltd for Rs 136 million

Updating media on other loss making companies taken over by the government he said the Grand Heights international hotel chain is keen in investing in the Celestial Towers and the government will invest on Sevanagala and Hingurana sugar factories along with the SME sector.,

Meanwhile the government has given four BOI factories to new people out of the ten taken over and two of them are utilized as store rooms for the paddy harvest, Jayasundara said.