Expolanka acquires controlling stake in Akquasun Holidays India for
US $ 915,000
Expolanka Holdings PLC recently acquired the controlling stake in
Akquasun Holidays India (Pvt) Ltd - at a cost of US $ 915,000, thus
further consolidating both its presence and strength in the leisure and
travel sectors.
Akquasun Holidays, the Mumbai-based destination management specialist
is a B2B Destination Management network company.
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Group Director and CEO Akquasun Group
B.A. Rahim, Group Chief Executive of Expolanka Holdings
Hanif Yusoof and Founder and Group MD Akquasun Group Sujit
Nair after the acquisition |
Primarily mandated to attracting traffic from emerging markets such
as India, Russia and China, it is part of the travel and leisure cluster
of the Expolanka Group which also includes Luxe Asia which focuses on
inbound high-end tourists, and Classic Travels, the leading outbound
travel company.
Group Chief Executive of Expolanka Holdings Hanif Yusoof said, "This
acquisition gives us greater impetus and strength to operate in a high
growth industry such as the tourism sector and thereby help to further
swell tourist figures to Sri Lanka.
It can be seen that China, India and Russia with their population
densities are now vibrant markets from where significant numbers travel
to Sri Lanka and many other countries in the Asia region.
This is seamlessly facilitated by Akquasan's wide global network of
its own offices in the Maldives, Mauritius, Hong Kong, China, Dubai,
Tanzania, South Africa, UK, Russia and the USA."
As part of its drive towards expanding its business further, Akquasun
Holidays India (Pvt) Ltd invited Expolanka to be a part of this
exercise. Based on a careful and long thought out Investment Appraisal,
Expolanka invested up to 50% of the equity shares with management
control of Akquasun Holidays India (Pvt) Ltd.
This strongly positions Expolanka as a leading player in the tourism
Industry with a strong global footprint.
It also provides a great opportunity for Expolanka to further
strengthen its position in the local tourism Industry while enabling it
to enhance its profit objectives as well.
India's tourism sector has shown tremendous potential over the past
few years witnessing an average growth rate of 9% - 10% over the last
five years. The country had experienced approximately 12 Mn outbound
Indian tourists during 2010.
This clearly indicates the vibrancy of the outbound Indian tourism
market, the upward mobility of the average Indian citizen, the explosion
of Indian Airlines, development in the aviation industry, all of which
point to continued growth that can be visible for many years into the
future.
Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka have grown by almost 46% for the year
2010 with 650,000 tourists. Among the major tourist originating
countries are USA, UK, Germany, Australia and Japan. The accolades Sri
Lanka has received as one of the best travel destinations has resulted
in this large increase. Current statistics indicate that India is the
second largest tourism destination country for Sri Lanka (after
Australia) and contributes almost 19% of tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka.
"Sri Lanka is currently on a drive to reach its 2.5 millionth tourist
by 2015. With our leisure and travel arms now strengthened, I'm
confident that we can help the country fast reach this watershed and
thus take Sri Lanka's tourism industry to the next level", he added.
Expolanka Holdings is a diversified conglomerate whose areas of
activity range from transportation and manufacturing to international
trading and strategic investments.
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